[HN Gopher] Productivity porn
___________________________________________________________________
Productivity porn
Author : triplechill
Score : 683 points
Date : 2022-08-03 18:21 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (calebschoepp.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (calebschoepp.com)
| FredPret wrote:
| I recently read The Focal Point and The One Thing. While these
| are tangentially related to productivity porn, they finally
| allowed me to let go of optimizing my work methods and focus on
| the one or two important things every
| day/week/month/year/lifetime.
|
| Stress levels: plummeting.
|
| Output (& happiness) much, much higher, far more than 10x before
|
| Optimized work methods: I now print out a very short to-do list
| for each business I work in. A literal printout from Notepad or
| Apple Notes.
|
| "Productivity": trending towards zero
| sdoering wrote:
| Have these books on my list. I feel you would recommend them?
| FredPret wrote:
| 10/10, yes.
| SanderNL wrote:
| Interestingly, this post itself is exactly what the author
| denounces. A lot of words that don't accomplish anything.
|
| Not dissing the post, it's excellent. Just pointing out.
| Havoc wrote:
| How can a post be both excellent and accomplish nothing?
| SanderNL wrote:
| It's productivity porn denouncing productivity porn.
|
| It is both excellent and not accomplishing anything. I'm
| sorry I don't see a problem.
| hahnbee wrote:
| It's the lesser of 2 evils. At least I'm learning when I'm
| consuming content that surrounds my work/lifestyle goals rather
| than just mindlessly scrolling through content that doesn't help
| me at all.
| wnolens wrote:
| Are you really learning though? Or are you reaping the rewards
| of imagining that you are improving by "consuming content"?
|
| Of the last 500 things you read, how many changes have you
| implemented and sustained?
|
| If your answers to those questions are similar to mine (the
| latter, and near zero) then I think one is actually better off
| letting go and just laughing at cat gifs.
| jbjbjbjb wrote:
| I think there's a spectrum here on the one end you could be
| doing the work on the other end doing something that's
| completely procrastinating like watching unrelated TikTok
| videos. And doing the work isn't necessarily always best
| because you might actually benefit from some learning. That
| learning is probably not best consumed as a daily hours long
| habitual binge of productivity porn, that's only slightly
| better than watching random TikTok.
| Syntonicles wrote:
| Agreed. This thread is filled with people who are confusing
| "consuming productivity content" with "actively being
| productive". It is one thing to discount reading blogs about
| time-tracking, efficiency and scheduling _instead of_
| implementing it in your daily life. It is quite another to
| discount the habits of productive people. To write those off en
| masse is to ignore the very real and obvious gradation of
| effectiveness we see in those around us.
|
| There are two counter-points that are often dismissed. The
| first is that if you haven't encountered the concepts, you
| aren't likely to stumble upon them without searching. Learning
| to plan and organize your behavior is no different from
| learning the fundamentals of any other skill.
|
| The second is precisely your point. Our thoughts and behaviors
| are driven by context. Given a person reading a blog about
| time-tracking and a person who-knows-where on an infinite
| social media scroll, who is more likely to close their browser
| and do whatever they feel is most important? I know who I would
| bet on.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| I think there is truth to the idea that someone who is
| actually implementing these systems, even half-heartedly, is
| at least putting in some effort towards whatever their goals
| is. However, I don't think the following is so clear-cut.
|
| > who is more likely to close their browser and do whatever
| they feel is most important? I know who I would bet on.
|
| Immersing oneself in productivity lifehacks is often a good
| way to _feel_ productive without actually being so. So I
| don't think either person stands to have a greater chance
| than the other towards getting back to work.
| pacarvalho wrote:
| "Productivity porn is anything that after having been consumed
| makes you feel like you were productive when in reality you
| didn't actually do anything." - Interesting definition.
| Kosirich wrote:
| I wonder if people with (adult) ADD are more susceptible to this.
| Same as the author, I would like to hear the story of someone
| breaking the cycle for good.
| Ensorceled wrote:
| I think the cure is to find a couple of systems that work and
| "settle" on them and stick to them.
|
| I have settled on the idea of "Minimal Viable Day" and "Minimal
| Viable Week" ... what are things that, if I did those things
| AND NOTHING ELSE, I would consider the day and week a success.
|
| Friday afternoon, I create a MVW todo item with 2-3 important
| things in it for the next week. Every morning I create MVD todo
| item with several things in it (often a bunch of smaller items
| and one or two largish items).
|
| Everything else goes into the todo list and is ignored until
| the next MVD/MVW checkpoint.
|
| Now I ignore all other "productivity hacks" and focus on doing
| this one.
| Kosirich wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. I understand what you mean and I'm
| currently doing something similar...again. What I (often)
| lack is the steps needed to go from a more complex long term
| project to MVW/MVD tasks and then sustaining that in the long
| run. I'm currently looking into ways of hacking this, this
| being the dopamine cycle.
| Ensorceled wrote:
| I've been doing SCRUM for a long time ... it's pretty
| natural for me to break down projects into smaller pieces
| that fit into a 1 week or 2 week cycle.
| Kosirich wrote:
| Yea, I've been thinking the same. I don't do so much
| scrum at work, but when I did and when I tried something
| similar on non-direct-work related projects it did
| something for me...In retrospect, I remember the pleasure
| of achieving certain amount of "points". When you break
| them down, do you try to "predict effort" in points or
| similar? I think it's perhaps time to try again.
| Ensorceled wrote:
| I just keep breaking it down until it either feels silly
| to break it down anymore and/or I can estimate the chunk
| fairly reliably.
| alexalx666 wrote:
| my ADD is coupled with being obsessive, this combo works
| kstrauser wrote:
| I know I am. The catch is that I _have_ to do at least a little
| bit of this if I want to not be homeless. I 've settled on the
| Things app with something that looks vaguely like GTD if you
| squint:
|
| - I have an inbox. _Everything_ I agree to do that I can 't do
| in the next couple of minutes goes in there. "Buy dogfood".
| "Paint the house". "Do a thing for work". Everything.
|
| - I triage the inbox and put starting dates on everything I
| can't do right now (like "buy a Christmas ornament") so that
| they'll show up on my daily to-do list when the time comes.
|
| - I review everything weekly, add stuff I've forgotten, and
| delete things I've finished or abandoned.
|
| And that's about it. Thing is, without this system, I can't and
| won't remember to do any of the things I need to. It doesn't
| matter how important it is to me to make sure I buy an
| anniversary card for my wife: I'll forget until it's too late.
| The above is how I walk the line between "letting my life fall
| apart due to disorganization and forgetfulness" and "wasting
| time optimizing a fancy process".
| Kosirich wrote:
| _Thing is, without this system, I can 't and won't remember
| to do any of the things I need to. It doesn't matter how
| important it is to me to make sure I buy an anniversary card
| for my wife: I'll forget until it's too late_ - this is
| exactly the sentence I have repeated over and over again to
| my wife...a bit scary.
|
| I do have a similar approach like you. What I'm f..ing
| furious about it is, that I had to reach my middle 20s in
| order to realize I have to have something like this at
| all(!). Why personal time organization isn't taught at
| schools is beyond me. For me the system I try to keep in
| place is: - Daily task list (personal) - this absolutely has
| to be done today (or it needs to be replaned) - Daily task
| list (work) - has to be done today or I have to make a more
| long term plan - Weekly house(hold) tasks - (this one I
| started recently) - I go through major stuff I have to do
| around the house (fence, paint ect) - Long term work project
| list - this holds everything I need to do for work... again
| less interesting issues gets re-prioritized often based on
| "current interest" - Calendar reminders (double/triple
| alerts)- stuff not to forget
|
| What I'm especially bad is tackling things that have a steep
| effort curve and don't produce a tangible "benefit (dopamine
| hit)" until further on. This I'm looking into
| hacking....perhaps the scrum point system is something that
| makes sense (and also recommended by comment above)
| kstrauser wrote:
| Everything I learned in school about taking notes and daily
| planning was nearly useless to me. I had to re-learn this
| skills later in life, because the old way of "this is how
| it's done, period" did me no favors.
|
| For that last bit, I'm pretty good about breaking bigger
| projects down into smaller pieces. After "paint the living
| room" lands in my inbox, I'll decompose that into things
| like "look for nice paint colors", and "ask my wife what
| kind of curtains she likes". Each of _those_ is easy to do
| for that quick dopamine hit.
| thenerdhead wrote:
| I'm writing a book on this(in my bio). I don't claim to have
| broke the cycle, but I discuss the challenges of my generation
| in it.
| petecooper wrote:
| _adds to Safari reading list, later files to `to read` bookmarks_
| zeroonetwothree wrote:
| I think it's equally unhealthy to be obsessed with being
| productive 100% of the time.
| triplechill wrote:
| Agreed, the trick is finding the balance. Personally still
| figuring how to do that.
| wawjgreen wrote:
| i object to normalizing the word "porn" for non-porn related
| activities. this is number one bullshit.
| praptak wrote:
| I admit this is not central to the article but I take issue with
| the authors statement that the incentives of our digital world
| "might *even* lead to radicalization". Put this way it suggests
| that radicalization is unquestionably evil, which I vehemently
| disagree with.
|
| Women have voting rights because some other women embraced
| radicalization and this is just one example.
| nicbou wrote:
| Here is a really pleasant video with a similar message:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz4YqwH_6D0
|
| A writer writes. A painter paints. You are not defined by what
| you want or prepare for, but by what you _do_.
|
| On the other hand, you don't have to spend every waking hour
| being productive. You can go on a bicycle ride without measuring
| speed and distance. You can work on things that won't develop
| into income streams. Not everything has to be about the hustle
| and the grind.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| I hustle but I timebox it. Figure out the hours/week it
| deserves. Less is sometimes better. The cliche of the shower
| idea is true. And if you are productive all the time there is
| no time for your brain's webworkers to do their thing.
| nicbou wrote:
| Since I'm self-employed, I just use the weather. If it's nice
| outside, I'll go out on my bicycle or play in the garage.
| When the weather isn't great, I'll get work done.
|
| Those breaks work exactly as you said. They let me zoom out
| and think things through, instead of grinding towards a local
| maximum. A bit of time and distance lets me reconsider my
| priorities and work on what feels right.
|
| Otherwise I'll just work on things that matter less for a bit
| and let important tasks simmer until I'm feeling fresh enough
| to tackle them. For example, CSS fixes to take a break from
| obscure German tax laws.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| >You can go on a bicycle ride without measuring speed and
| distance.
|
| It's kind of wild how people need metrics - myself included -
| in order to feel like they _did_ something. I have been really
| trying to address that in my own life after I found it had
| creeped so far into my daily life that it was influencing _what
| video games I play_. I mean...what?
|
| I blame it on the fitbit I got years ago haha
| jabits wrote:
| I agree. My wife and I take ocean swims most days and we both
| use Apple watches for metrics. She wears hers without fail,
| but I sometimes (disappointedly) forget to wear mine. When
| that happens it almost feels like I didn't work out.
| nicbou wrote:
| I went the other way and refuse to measure things. I have a
| gut feeling for "enough" and it's not a fixed value. It
| varies according to internal and external factors. I prefer
| to trust that feeling over arbitrary targets.
|
| I feel good about a long enough bike ride, even if it's a few
| kilometres below average. Maybe I was tired, or maybe I
| lingered in cafes with a good book that time. Distance isn't
| a good measure of happiness.
| rr888 wrote:
| I wonder how many "successful" people actually read this stuff.
| TedShiller wrote:
| Zero. They're being successful, so they don't need this
| owow123 wrote:
| "im not productive" === "im not happy / socially isolated and my
| self esteem is low" this statement probably holds true for 99%
| who "relate" to this shite.
|
| Stop lying to yourself, more work wont make you happy - It didnt
| the first time.
|
| There is no easy fix, disabling social media wont fix it. Most
| gains of that nature are short lived.
|
| For real results its long term work on yourself and changes to
| your environment (I'm just getting started on my journey of
| solving this dont take it from me, talk to people > 10 years old
| than you or read a philosophy book > 500 years old)
| satisfice wrote:
| I don't get it, Caleb. By your reckoning, the fact the I read
| your blog post means I'm wasting my time. Instead of doing I did
| reading.
|
| I deny the existence of "productivity porn." It's a made up idea.
| I read for clues to improve my work and life. This is not empty
| stimulation, this is living an examined life.
| wawjgreen wrote:
| i object to the use of the P-word in variety of contexts. it
| normalizes it as if it were something usual.
| therealasdf wrote:
| I unsubscribed from Ali Abdal's youtube channel for this same
| reason. I have the utmost respect for him and I'm amazed at how
| well he manages his life. However, i always felt anxious after
| watching his videos. This video to be exact made me feel like
| shit and made me decide I should unsubscribe
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQSKyvjsUuI
| jarett-lee wrote:
| I recently watched a video that this article reminded me of: I
| Watch Your Videos But Never Change My Life
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj5lA7FfUkI
|
| The premise is that there's a viewer that watches a bunch of
| self-improvement videos, but never enacts any of the suggestions.
| The presenter's argument is that change happens when you
| understand and digest the suggestions you've been given and it
| naturally comes to mind. In order to digest the changes, you need
| to avoid chain consuming content, reflect on what you read or
| watched, and to be patient.
|
| The analogy that really stuck with me is you don't read the
| textbook over and over again to learn, you read the textbook and
| quiz yourself. Similarly, to change yourself, you don't read
| informational articles one after another, you need to sit down
| and think about what you read at least once right after you read
| it and ideally multiple times until it's ingrained in your brain.
| After the concept is ingrained in your brain, then you can start
| taking the advice. In some cases you can just start doing things
| differently, but often it's hard because you're not clear on what
| you need to do differently, you fail, then you become
| demotivated.
| travisgriggs wrote:
| I'm gonna go read an article about how to be a better stoic now.
| [deleted]
| lisper wrote:
| Sometimes I feel as if our entire society has turned into one
| giant cargo cult. Whether it's OKRs or the latest tech fad or
| black turtlenecks, everyone looks at the last big hit, picks out
| some set of superficial features of the person at the top, and
| says, "Yeah, _that_ is the key to success. " No one ever steps
| back to think about causality or even what they actually _want_.
|
| Brings to mind one of my favorite aphorisms: furious activity is
| no substitute for understanding. Very few people seem to
| subscribe to it, but I've gotten an enormous amount of mileage
| out of it over the years.
| radu_floricica wrote:
| There's an old joke I love. "Why do elephants have red eyes? So
| they can better hide in cherry trees." "But I've never heard of
| an elephant climbing a tree!" "See how well they hide?"
|
| It's a bit stereotypical by now to hear about influencers
| preaching 4am wakeup times. But the truth is that some of that
| stuff works. And more importantly, the general attitude of trying
| to improve your daily process sure as hell works. It took me well
| over a decade to move from very struggling freelancer to actually
| feeling ok with the work I put in, and I've definitely not
| stopped improving.
| bribri wrote:
| The attitude of dissing people trying to improve themselves is
| depressing.
| iovrthoughtthis wrote:
| it's just the pendulum of opinion swinging
|
| the world needs yin _and_ yang
|
| we've had a good few years of self improvement being seen as
| good and noble. now for the return to mean
|
| it will over swing the other way and productivity will return
| to the table in a different but similar form
|
| like everything, this too shall pass
| jedberg wrote:
| I disagree with the premise. I think the things you learn reading
| that tweet or that medium post can be useful. There were
| definitely times when I ran into a problem and thought to myself,
| "Hey I remember reading about this on Hacker News, how did they
| solve it?" and then going back and finding the post and finding a
| solution to my problem.
|
| There is also the notion of being able to make better decisions
| with more "connection material" in your mind. The more you know,
| the more likely you are to make a novel connection.
|
| I consider reading HN and the like part of building up that
| library.
| epolanski wrote:
| The point isn't expanding your knowledge, but doing so when
| there's other priorities.
| jedberg wrote:
| But priorities are just a personal preference and ever
| shifting. Sure sometimes there are external forces driving
| our priorities, like needing to finish a work project to get
| paid, bur once you've taken care of those, it's totally
| reasonable for "knowledge acquisition" to be at the top.
| tamrix wrote:
| It's not knowledge acquisition. It's a false sense of
| accomplishment. You feel like you've learnt something that
| will help you be more productive. So your mind justifies
| the time you've spent learning it by thinking you've paid
| it back.
|
| So mentally, you don't feel like your wasting time. Thus
| you consume more and more. Which for some, can create an
| addictive feedback loop similar but exaggerated as porn.
| Which ironically is wasting time.
|
| Everything in life is in balance.
| jedberg wrote:
| As I said in my original post, I couldn't disagree more.
| It _is_ knowledge acquisition. I 've solved problems
| because of things I learned on HN/reddit/Twitter.
|
| I've come up with novel solutions to things by combining
| ideas that I read on each platform.
|
| Not everything you learn will have immediate value.
| Sometimes it takes a while for it to become useful.
| kajecounterhack wrote:
| The article is identifying a tendency for _some_ people
| to over-explore (aquire knowledge) and under-exploit
| (apply knowledge). Specifically it 's calling out when
| "exploration" is not being done in a structured way, and
| the result of that is slower / less effective skill
| acquisition.
|
| If you want to learn to draw, you have a carve out time
| to practice and you need to learn a tree of sub-skills
| that may have interdependencies. Watching occasional
| youtube videos about drawing, or reading meta discussion
| about drawing is nice, but moves the needle very slowly.
| If your goal is a certain level of proficiency, you may
| not reach that level without a change in strategy.
|
| I guess the author doesn't get all the way here, but by
| saying "Stop thinking (reading,
| listening, watching etc.) about how to do something and
| just go do it."
|
| ...I think what they are getting at is this logical
| progression to pursue more exploitation (do stuff / apply
| knowledge), and to allow {the act of doing} to structure
| your priorities for exploration. I think a lot of folks
| talk about this (e.g. the whole idea of deep work).
|
| It's a useful strategy because by _trying_ stuff, you
| discover what you don't know / what you need to learn,
| and as you conquer those things, you discover more things
| you don't know & this dynamic perpetuates itself.
|
| This doesn't mean random exploration can't be helpful (as
| you point out, it can be very helpful) -- however by
| itself it has limited utility, and many fall into the
| trap of doing _only_ that. The idea of "productivity
| porn" is just "I'm stuck going wide when I know I should
| go deep," and the author attributes this to the firehose
| of feeds, tweets, blog posts, videos, etc.
|
| There are clearly people who have the opposite tendency
| and go deep (exploit) instead of wide (explore), and can
| benefit from more explorative behaviors, but this blog
| post is not speaking to them. Maybe you're one of those
| people :)
| _gabe_ wrote:
| > There is also the notion of being able to make better
| decisions with more "connection material" in your mind. The
| more you know, the more likely you are to make a novel
| connection.
|
| I completely agree with this, but I don't believe all blog
| posts and technical articles are written equal :)
|
| You have:
|
| 1. Your garden variety tech blog post about somebody's
| experience using X or Y framework or just a general techy blog.
| (I'm thinking a joel spolsky or coding horror post here)
|
| 2. A technical dive into a specific problem/framework.
|
| 3. A raymond chen style blog post explaining the reasons behind
| some weird api.
|
| And then you have the deeper material:
|
| 4. The Pragmatic Programmer. Not too dense and can still be
| enjoyed at a leisurely pace, but contains enough deep thinking
| type of material to motivate you.
|
| 5. A comprehensive reference book about a specific framework or
| concept (Game Engine Architecture and OpenGL SuperBible come to
| mind).
|
| 6. The Art of Computer Programming.
|
| I only consider the last 3 productivity material. The first 3
| can be helpful in rare instances, but they're more akin to
| watching a 3blue1brown video where I say "That was interesting"
| and proceed to forget all about that topic.
| lytefm wrote:
| If we're talking about ,,reading a full article + following
| the discussion", then yes.
|
| But for me, 1.) has also been helpful for discovering
| frameworks or tools that I'm now using in my everyday work
| life (e.g. LogSeq, Prefect). I wouldn't count it as
| ,,productive" either, but just reading announcements or
| random tech blog posts sometimes translates into actually
| adopting the thing.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| The problem is these "fake productivity" sources arent clearly
| identified. They are just referenced and then different people
| assume hes a talking about different things and no one realizes
| that we're all using different definitions.
| penguin_booze wrote:
| Cigarette packets carry grotesque images of disease caused by
| prolonged use of the product. Likewise, I think social media apps
| should be forced to periodically display warnings like, "This app
| is designed to make you feel inadequate, addicted, and lonely.
| Please don't think its real - that's how we make our living".
| WA wrote:
| Banner blindness is real. You'll ignore this message after it
| was shown three times.
| booleandilemma wrote:
| You can always be thinner...look better...
| Arisaka1 wrote:
| This is 100% me if you substitute social media browsing with
| distro hopping and text editor tinkering. Now I understand why
| redditors decided to call that subreddit "unixporn".
|
| My solution: Stick with Fedora and Visual Studio Code, because
| I've spent at least 100 hours in the past month checking out
| Neovim, getting my first init.lua to work, messing around with
| configurations, making telescope work, make telescope look good.
| Then switched to Arch, try bspwm, Gnome, KDE, fonts.
|
| Meanwhile, my fellow junior colleague is flexing all over me his
| Docker knowledge, his experience in unit testing and CI/CD, and
| generally things people actually pay you for.
| nukst wrote:
| I had a serious problem with colorscheme tinkering so I decided
| to use no syntax highlighting and I've never been happier.
| idontwantthis wrote:
| To me that's like coding with one hand.
| schadara wrote:
| Well, then you'll be a leet neovim ninja, and you can hack text
| like no other. Don't be so hard on yourself. :)
| mindentropy wrote:
| I used to do that and it has helped me quite a bit. Now I know
| what distro's are good and I can bring up embedded systems much
| faster and what needs to be packaged.
|
| I also have to have a particular font and color or it would be
| difficult to focus. Not sure why. Also if I use dark mode I
| start getting a headache. Not able to figure why it is so.
| wnolens wrote:
| I blame Tim Ferris. He's the poster boy for productivity porn.
|
| He has a podcast where he tries to extract productivity tips from
| accomplished people, then compiles the tips and sells it as a
| self help book.
|
| And he's completely genuine. Soooo deep down the productivity
| rabbit hole.
| a9h74j wrote:
| The article itself explores the analogy to porn more deeply than
| the usual offhand reference to productivity porn, particularly
| with reference to energy-sapping and demotivating effects.
| schadara wrote:
| Porn helps me sleep. Boom. Done.
|
| Also, a motivator because I sleep dreaming of having a nice gf
| one day :)
| redanddead wrote:
| While reading this story it felt like we are subscriber()
| functions to social media's eventemitters. Like we're all hooked
| up to this larger system
| lynguist wrote:
| The name is horrible.
|
| This is the reward you seek for accomplishing something. It's the
| ticking of a to-do item, except the items are kind of useless,
| they just want to be ticked.
|
| This is the same as smoking a cigarette, getting a quick fix,
| taking the phone with you to the toilet, watching TV at night
| instead of sleeping, just to finish an internal to-do because you
| feel like you didn't accomplish it yet.
|
| The solution I have to it is to exit the house without a phone,
| and to have something to do. Without the phone you can't give
| yourself the quick to-do fixes and you're more present. And when
| you have something to do, you don't want to give yourself the
| quick fixes.
| ericmcer wrote:
| If you peruse instagram accounts that post tutorials of how to do
| things (cooking, art, engineering, etc.) you will quickly realize
| that there are thousands of positive comments and likes on
| instructional videos that teach things completely wrong. Anyone
| attempting to follow the video would be baffled. This article
| definitely comes up with a good term for the phenomenon behind
| the success of those videos.
| Barrin92 wrote:
| The biggest issue with the whole productivity porn thing is that
| it's fundamentally 'midwit' activity. Genuinely novel work, by
| definition cuts through existing things, brushes them away and
| produces something that is new. Tending to your knowledge gardens
| and note taking tools and reading blogs and whatnot is just
| busywork.
|
| People who built real things generally do so because they have
| the will to do it, not because they have 500 pages of investment
| advice collected on Notion.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| Life advice, self help, etc, all of it is too general to be
| helpful to anyone.
|
| What works for a 46 year old married mother of 3 probably won't
| be what works for a 23 year old tech nerd.
|
| You have this obsession with becoming some type of super human
| who can do things vastly beyond your peers.
|
| Sure the average 30 year old living in LA will never buy a home.
|
| That doesn't concern you super elite hustle bro. Hustle so hard
| you have 3 houses, 2 lifted trucks, and a dog who can speak basic
| French.
|
| Most of us are by definition average. Actual life advice for our
| above character would be to move somewhere with affordable
| housing, only buy a lifted truck if you have cash, etc.
|
| No body wants to read.
|
| "Fix your life over 18 to 24 months by making difficult choices"
|
| People want.
|
| "Fix your life in 3 weeks, only takes 30 minutes a day"
| balaji1 wrote:
| Such a good point. How do I calibrate to the all the advice out
| there? Find that hard - be it finance advice, health advice,
| hustle advice or anything else.
|
| Like you say, most of us are average. There's rarely any
| content for a '46 year old married mother of 3' or any of the
| average folks. But a normal person's daily life goes for a toss
| when they hear advice on YT (or watch a Insta reel or a TikTok
| dance) they know they won't be able to do themselves but they
| think should be doing.
| agota wrote:
| >"Fix your life in 3 weeks, only takes 30 minutes a day"
|
| More like "This ONE Tip Will Change Your Life!"
| notsapiensatall wrote:
| You keep saying "lifted truck" like it's something to aspire
| to, but aren't pickups dirt cheap in the US?
| trebbble wrote:
| God no. Even before the recent huge bump in car prices.
|
| They're very _common_ , but not cheap.
|
| They're either actual work trucks built to do real work (so,
| not cheap) or are status symbols (so burning cash is part of
| the point--also not cheap).
|
| Like with anything, you can save buying used, but I don't see
| very many older trucks around these days. Dunno if a lot got
| taken off the roads with Cash for Clunkers, or if rising gas
| prices made older trucks less appealing so a bunch got
| scrapped, or what. Seems like _most_ trucks I used to see
| were older, but since they got more popular for normal
| drivers, even one visibly 7-8 model years old is pretty
| unusual. Less so out in the sticks, but near the city, it 's
| almost all fairly-new trucks.
|
| The people who really want to show off can get trucks that
| approach six figures, retail. Not some custom job, that's in-
| demand enough that it's a normal trim level they make.
|
| Any extra stuff done to a truck after purchase is _sometimes_
| about functionality but _most cases you see_ will be
| conspicuous consumption instead, including lift kits. Tons of
| them are on trucks that 'll rarely leave pavement--they're
| the same as fancy, expensive rims or whatever.
|
| [EDIT] Cheap (relatively cheap, anyway) light trucks _used
| to_ be a thing, like in the 90s and earlier, but are damn
| near not made at all, anymore.
| jjice wrote:
| New pick ups are pretty expensive, at least from my
| perspective. A baseline F150 starts at 40k-ish. A decked out
| one could run you near double that I believe.
|
| Compare to a baseline Civic at around 23k.
| notsapiensatall wrote:
| Wow. People are really paying $80k for an F-150?
|
| Every time I think I can't get any more cynical, life
| throws a curveball like that.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| Many pickup trucks in the US are basically luxury
| vehicles akin to a high end Mercedes or BMW.
| philk10 wrote:
| wait til you hear about the waitlist for the F-150
| Lightning...
| pugets wrote:
| I worked with a guy who spent $55k on a new truck. We
| were both making $18 an hour. He was in his early 20s
| living with his parents.
|
| That was in 2017... I wonder if he's still paying it off.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| Was this in LA by any chance?
|
| I recall making $10 an hour and having a manager berate
| me for not owning a personal vehicle.
|
| And it was a temp job!
| RalfWausE wrote:
| A long time ago, just about the time short after the 9/11
| attack i joined the german army. In my platoon there was
| a guy my age who drove a f...ing Dodge Viper.
|
| You need to know, german conscripts were not really well
| paid back then, so it totally baffled me, especially
| after hearing that his family is from a blue collar
| background.
|
| It turned out, that crazy guy somehow convinced a bank to
| give him enough credit to pay the deposit so he could get
| the credit from the dealer... and after this, every month
| his whole pay went into the payment of the credit(s) and
| the fuel.
|
| People do... crazy stuff
| shortstuffsushi wrote:
| I bought a new F-150, XL edition (lowest) in 2020 for 29k,
| just for reference. On the Ford site, it appears the new
| models at a similar trim level are about 31k. Most people
| don't buy the baseline "work truck," which is what mine is
| (4x2, 3.3L, 8ft bed, short cab), but they don't _have_ to
| be 40k. Add 4x4 and any level of trim and you 're there,
| though.
| zeroth32 wrote:
| that is pretty cheap, compared to europe after all
| taxes... 31k gets you fake SUV on sedan platform, not
| F150
| shortstuffsushi wrote:
| For what it's worth, what I would call the "fake SUV"
| from Ford (the Escape) is listed starting @27k. The
| Explorer, you might call a real SUV, starts @35k.
| izalutski wrote:
| A lot of the problem is gone after realising that productivity
| has little to do with efficiency and almost everything with
| prioritisation / focus. As soon as you become aware of your
| "attention flow" (what your attention span is spent on, like cash
| flow) it becomes hard to justify reading stuff like that.
| mustafabisic1 wrote:
| Love it, and totally felt this myself. That's why I created a
| newsletter for remote working parents. To be on the creation side
| and as least as possible on the consuming side.
|
| https://thursdaydigest.com/
| ChildOfChaos wrote:
| Your solution to productivity porn is to create more
| productivity porn?
| mustafabisic1 wrote:
| Everything about this post seems to be like that lol There is
| something to it for sure. Thanks for the comment, you cracked
| me up :D
| dclowd9901 wrote:
| Nothing to say about the piece except the author is trying to co-
| opt a super well known idiom into something that means nothing
| close to that idiom. I'm not sure whether to admire the audacity
| or laugh at the utter lack of awareness.
| stevenfoster wrote:
| The Jewish people have their Sabbath, as a hispanic person
| myself, we have our Siesta. I spent over a decade in the tech
| industry and I'd literally be scoffed at for actually napping in
| a nap room or pod for 20min. Finally just started doing it in my
| car. But that's one of my practices that anchors me not only to
| my culture, but my Creator. It humbles me. And brings me joy. I
| hope everyone could find what their practice could be that would
| bring them this.
|
| Take some time, at least once a year, to sit down with yourself
| and have a vision for your life not based on work or status (ie
| vacations or the acquisition of things). If that isn't enough to
| snap you out, go to a small village in Latin America or maybe
| like Matthew McConaughey discovered and talked about in his book,
| a quaint monastery in New Mexico. Stay there until it makes
| sense.
|
| Most people want to be productive because they want to feel
| valued by others. But if you have to look to your own value from
| others, you've already lost, and will continue to lose forever.
|
| Be. You. Slowly. and you'll find you're more valuable than you
| ever thought.
| niyikiza wrote:
| Alain De Botton has a fantastic book about this called "Status
| Anxiety"[1]. The book gave me a fresh perspective on how to
| avoid being trapped in the race to prove yourself to others.
|
| [1]https://www.amazon.com/Status-Anxiety-Alain-
| Botton/dp/037572...
| mindentropy wrote:
| As an Indian I loved my afternoon sleep during the holidays.
| During school days I would come home and sleep for an hour
| while reading something. I really loved my sleep. When I
| started work I hated that my sleep was reduced drastically.
| Sleeping late working on personal projects played havoc on my
| sleep. Now in WFH I sleep for an hour or more in the evening
| which would have been wasted commuting.
|
| I have seen my cognitive skills decrease because of lack of
| sleep. Now I am just chilling and catching up with rest and
| chilling and don't give a crap about work or projects.
| birdyrooster wrote:
| Once you realize you only work for (aka being bribed by)
| BigCo to snuff out their competition it pretty much removes
| the guilt of not working. I used to have gray hair coming in,
| and after I stopped being a try-hard the color came back. I
| was looking so old and tired always, now I am looking and
| feeling spry! Enjoy life and donate all of the bribes you
| don't need to people who need it through direct action so
| they can have a chance to nap too.
| mindentropy wrote:
| >Once you realize you only work for (aka being bribed by)
| BigCo to snuff out their competition it pretty much removes
| the guilt of not working.
|
| Yes. Exactly. There is no real innovation. All that I see
| nowadays is corporate drama of passing the blame around,
| climbing the ladder with politics and all the wrong people
| put in interesting and important positions. There are a lot
| of cult like people who take pride in this fake drama and I
| am definitely not one.
|
| All I want now is to retire with a good enough corpus by
| coasting so that I have enough to work on my personal
| projects, eat healthy, sleep well coupled with some sports
| and exercise.
| tiku wrote:
| How many cultures are there that have a midday/afternoon
| sleep? I only knew of the siesta in Spain..
| gherkinnn wrote:
| From my experience, Italians and in the south of France.
| The French also shut everything down on Sundays.
|
| In the middle east I've also seen people napping in
| mosques. The large ones remain nice and cool during the hot
| summer day. Mind you, it was Ramadan, so that might have
| changed things.
|
| Overall, I expect people in hot climates to sleep through
| the mid day heat and go back to work later. I for one envy
| them.
| Gene_Parmesan wrote:
| I mean, it makes sense. It's fairly well encoded into the
| genetics that determine our circadian rhythms. There is a
| dip in energy levels, corresponding to changed brain
| waves, that occurs at approximately midday. That 1pm
| drowsiness is your body just trying to do mammal things.
| bebop wrote:
| I think it is pretty common in places where the mid day sun
| makes working difficult and dangerous.
| thatguy0900 wrote:
| There was a famous line about it for when the British
| started colonizing Africa, "only mad dogs and English men
| go out in the midday sun"
| mandeepj wrote:
| I can resonate; I also love napping. Naturally, my body does
| not require much sleep, but napping is like having one of
| those 5 hours energy drink, without actually having it.
| Sometimes, I'm up from it in just 20 mins w\o an alarm and
| there are times when I don't wake up with an alarm even after
| 1 hour - it goes for 2ish hours.
|
| Yes, I'm gifted -
| https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/22/health/short-sleep-gene-
| welln...
| poulsbohemian wrote:
| Kind of orthogonal to this conversation, but... with increasing
| temperatures, I find myself wondering at what point more parts
| of the US might switch to a formal siesta or even nighttime
| hours. Last summer my area had a month+ of 100+ degree days,
| and this year it looks like we will have at least several weeks
| of it. People, especially outdoor workers, simply can't be
| expected to work in that for a full on day - people would die.
| So it makes me wonder if we will start to see interesting
| shifts in the work day as happens in other parts of the
| country.
| Gigachad wrote:
| This is more possible with WFH now. I sleep for about an hour a
| day on work hours and I don't work later to make it back up.
| Still only get positive feedback about the work I get done.
| mk89 wrote:
| This you can only do when they don't set meetings just after
| lunch time, which is very common in my company unfortunately.
| But yeah I agree with you.
| helpfulmandrill wrote:
| > Most people want to be productive because they want to feel
| valued by others. But if you have to look to your own value
| from others, you've already lost, and will continue to lose
| forever.
|
| I think for me its about fear of death.
| danielbln wrote:
| Death will come for you regardless of your productivity.
| helpfulmandrill wrote:
| I know, but if I get twice as much done, its like living
| twice as long ;)
|
| I know its nonsense, but it makes an intuitive sense in the
| absence of a better way to deal with existential anxiety.
| jisbruzzi wrote:
| For some, productivity equals virtue.
|
| A virtuous life is always better than a lazy or vicious
| life. So you die _having lived a better life_. And (at
| least for us catholics AFAIK), a virtuous life leads to
| heavens.
| pnutjam wrote:
| As a US Catholic, I find much greater value in family
| time, volunteering, and jus the regular things I do to
| help people in my community. Work productivity is not on
| my list of "virtues".
| evanspa wrote:
| "vicious" Think you meant to say "vacuous"
| JoshCole wrote:
| Catholics have far better news than that you get to
| heaven on the basis of personal productivity. Consider
| these questions: When and why was toil introduced? Did
| the prodigal son have riches when he returned to the
| father to justify himself? Did the Pharisees need to have
| bread with them? Did the crowd have enough bread? Who
| provided sufficient bread: the vine or the lost sheep? If
| virtue is productivity, then why does God say that there
| is a rest for his people? Did he rest on the seventh day
| because he was not as virtuous as Pharaoh's taskmasters?
|
| Industriousness is wise, but all is vanity and the fool
| when he dies goes to the same place as the wise.
| muro wrote:
| All correct, though there is also the part about burying
| a lent talent and returning it without "interest".
| lbrito wrote:
| But what if we hack death??
|
| Joking, obviously. But it is amusing how many people
| (Kurzweil, Harari) seriously have faith in this (and
| believe there is something novel in this pursuit).
| PostOnce wrote:
| Yes, but you can either die having achieved your goals, or
| die with them unmet.
| helpfulmandrill wrote:
| But then again, nothing makes you feel more empty than
| achieving a goal...
| helmholtz wrote:
| That's not my experience. I need to be making progress to
| be sane. Achieving something small everyday makes me have
| confidence in life and a sense of control. This is
| crucial to keep existential dread at bay. I have a
| calendar where I track life events (good and bad). It's
| wonderful to look back and remember that, tlin the last
| two years, even though I feel like I haven't changed,
| actually a lot has.
| xkcd1963 wrote:
| Achieving something is hence a source of joy. But so is
| eating food.
| docmars wrote:
| Achieving something evokes a feeling of loss that you
| have to bear until you've found whatever is next. It's
| not unlike experiencing a death or break-up. This happens
| when you finish a book, video game, or TV show you've
| invested a fair bit of time in. We are driven to cope
| with this feeling by seeking what's next.
| gonzo41 wrote:
| You won't know either way. Few people die knowing they
| will.
| skinnymuch wrote:
| You're dead though. What does it matter?
| 0807test wrote:
| I know that submissions with no substance are frowned upon
| here, but I just wanted to tell you that for some reason
| your comment is the funniest one I read in quite some time.
|
| Maybe because of my lifelong struggle with productivity and
| procrastination... Cheers!
| jcpst wrote:
| There's a book about this called "4000 weeks" (thanks for the
| correction). Basically, all the popular productivity hacks
| are nonsense, and just make you busier. You do this because
| of a fear of death. Accept that you will die soon, so just
| stick to the important stuff.
| Gene_Parmesan wrote:
| Nothing like a strong dose of existential dread to get me
| through the work day.
| zs234465234165 wrote:
| 4000 weeks
| aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
| Cool! Added this to my Notion board!
| samuell wrote:
| I always thought Solomon summarized it most succinctly, in the
| latter part of this passage:
|
| "The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings
| like firmly embedded nails--given by one shepherd.
|
| Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
|
| Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the
| body."
|
| Ecclesiastes 12:10-12
|
| :)
| catchclose8919 wrote:
| meh, strive for CLARITY instead: _figure out what really needs
| most to be done, understand more about what you 're doing, do
| less but have a larger impact!_
| [deleted]
| LordHeini wrote:
| I really don't get any of those "be more productive", book,
| video, course and so on.
|
| Every single person I know just wastes their time with that.
| Usualy they work long hours and still don't get much done.
|
| But hey, they have Zettelkasten with things the never read. A to
| do list with stuff they never do. And they go out in the morning
| at 5 for jogging, while gulping down a liter of coffe or energy
| drinks which results in them being groggy the whole day.
|
| If you ever think you need to adhere to what is preached in any
| self improvement thing, just don't.
|
| Habe your shit in order, avoid working mor than 7 hours day and
| take your weekends and vacations seriously.
|
| Especially in IT nothing will get you further than being smartly
| lazy.
| lm28469 wrote:
| > I really don't get any of those "be more productive", book,
| video, course and so on.
|
| They think that is they eat, sleep and think like Musk or
| Zuckerberg they'll get the same bank account. They spend time
| mimicking the by products of their lifestyle
| tamsaraas wrote:
| You don't understand how the trick works. I am a person who
| fell for the bait thrown by info / "guides" sellers.2010-2015 -
| peak in my life of productivity. I was able to do damn a lot of
| things altogether. Fix challenging and complex bugs, implement
| modern and crazy stuff, etc.
|
| And my hobby project (game) became popular. Unfortunately, I
| did not use any GTD / todolists, etc. Maybe a tiny todo program
| like qtodotxt because it's small, and I am too greedy to pay
| for todoist.
|
| But since the end of 2015 - I have noticed how slowly I was
| starting to do smaller and smaller amounts of work. I was just
| sitting and can't push myself to continue with the previous
| speed of results. Not because things become more complex, but
| because I can't explain to myself what is going on.
|
| More tasks on the todo, more things to do, more promises
| freaked off, etc. And after googling for a better todo tools,
| ads networks got my interest and started to offer through
| youtube and ads different promoted videos about GTD, matrix
| Gunzenhauser or how it is called, and other stuff.
|
| Tons of really nice made videos, which work like popcorn for
| brains. Do X to get the Y result. Extremely easily explained
| things and procedures. I followed this bullshit and dug in
| because someone else was thinking for me, not me myself. I did
| not realize that at that point in time.
|
| I think this is extremely important to bold: I was not ready to
| even try to think or understand that I want to job done not by
| me but by someone else. This is an important thing, please try
| to remember it, I will get back to it later.
|
| In 2016 -> I started to learn different methodologies, follow
| different literature and books which do the same, and around
| the end of 2016, I got a strict understanding that this is
| business. Literally structured business which makes by
| themselves via tricks and manipulations with information and
| reasons <-> results relations which force idiots like me follow
| it, purchase more to get something that never will work. But
| you are forced to purchase and learn more because you can't
| make the thing work because it's impossible to make the
| thing/methodology work. Because the methodology sucks. Because
| it's made for business more. Like drugs -> while you read all
| of that bullshit and believe in that -> you feel good, when you
| trying to do something - you feel pissed off. And you face some
| kind of addiction.
|
| God bless, I met some girl in 2019, which was suicidal, and was
| hospitalized and treated by psychiatrists. She told me -> "man,
| the thing that you have this is typical symptoms of depression,
| try to visit doctor."
|
| I was denying that thing for damn a long time, maybe two years
| for sure. The problem with depression - is that the thing you
| can't beat alone. You will always go deeper and deeper to
| darker and more problematic things which impossible to cure
| yourself. That does not work like that.
|
| Anyway, finally, when I worked in 2020 for only two weeks in
| the whole year, I strongly realized something extremely bad
| with me. I tried damn everything, just imagine everything that
| you can or who suggest you something: nothing helped. Literally
| everything (relax, changing work, changing friends circle,
| restriction of something X, doing something Y, whatever). Does
| not matter.
|
| Just save your time and nerves - do not listen to anybody like
| me. So, in 2021, I slowly got a strong wish, like when you are
| hungry or want water, but that wish is about to die. This
| feeling follows you every single day, every single thing. If
| somehow you got a conflict / emotional problem -> boom, you
| wanna die. No, this is not a "pissed off" thing. This thing is
| about 3,2,1 - jump from a window. No jokes here. Crazy shit.
|
| Anyway. Somehow after one of such days when I almost committed
| suicide -> I visited a doctor. Diagnosed with the latest stage
| of depression (it's when people kill themselves), and got
| offered to be hospitalized, and so on. I refused that, and I
| got pills to drink and talked with psychiatrists for a few
| months (until the war started).
|
| So. What do I want to say to you? After starting to visit
| doctors who treat depression with pills + I tried to fix my
| problems with professional specialists in a clinic -> I started
| to feel better.
|
| My libido because of pills -> goes down. But my intellectual
| potential -> go up in 2016-2015 years. I was able again, for
| almost a month, non-stop work, work great, did tons of a good
| job, and be productive.
|
| I did not follow any tools, methodology, etc. I just had an
| inner power to do that. I got it back. Some kind of will.
|
| So why do I write all of that? I hope my post helps many IT
| specialists like me (who feel burned) to understand those head
| problems -> it's common problems, and these problems are
| treated and help damn a lot to return back the previous level
| of productivity of your nature.
|
| It will not boost you over your limits, but correct treatment
| will help you cure the source of your wasted will.
|
| Just stop jerking for GTD / kanban / scrum / other bullshit.
| All of that shit does not work and should not work. Just
| abstraction, which will make life harder. If you feel extremely
| overwhelmed, can't do things in time, or lose your focus, or
| can't force yourself to work as you worked before ->, visit
| your doctor.
|
| Pills are not costly, and treatment in the early stages too.
| And results - damn awesome.
| pca006132 wrote:
| Yes, when you start to feel getting nothing done, tried those
| so called productivity tricks and doesn't work, start self
| blaming, it may be a sign for depression.
|
| It is hard to fix this alone, considering the society is
| constantly telling us that if you don't get stuff done, it is
| because you are lazy and did not do XYZ. Just find a
| counsellor or your doctor and see if they have any clue.
| azemetre wrote:
| I really enjoyed your post and glad you're in a better state.
| schadara wrote:
| Wow, damn awesome post. I'm on my phone and can't type a lot,
| but I would write a lot if I could about how your post
| resonated with me.
|
| I'm productive but I'm fighting inner demons constantly. Your
| post is a good warning. Try to fix the small things before
| they become big things, like the "no broken windows policy"
| doix wrote:
| > Especially in IT nothing will get you further than being
| smartly lazy.
|
| One day I'll finish my "self-help" book which is all about
| doing as little as possible and leaving everything until the
| last minute in case it resolves itself. Unfortunately, I listen
| to my own advise and will probably never finish the book.
| barking_biscuit wrote:
| Reminds me of that line from that movie "you and your stupid
| mate" where the guy ignores the letter and doesn't open and
| he says something like "If I wait 5 days and then open it, if
| it's bad news then that's 5 extra days of happiness that I
| got that I wouldn't have got if I opened it now".
|
| Can't fault that logic.
| lkschubert8 wrote:
| The JIT Productivity Method. You'll have it written just as
| soon as someone goes to read it.
| JacobThreeThree wrote:
| Schrodinger's productivity.
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| You jest but didn't the guy who wrote "The Martian" do it
| one blog post at a time?
| sakras wrote:
| Instant cassettes! They're out in stores before the movie
| is finished!
| danielbln wrote:
| We have AI now to take our laziness to the next level, so
| there you go (quoted text is AI generated)
|
| Write a blurb for a self-help book that is about doing as
| little as possible and leaving everything until the last
| minute in case it resolves itself, it's called "The JIT
| Productivity Method"
|
| > The JIT Productivity Method is a revolutionary new system
| for getting things done. It's the antithesis of the
| traditional "work hard now, play later" approach, and it's
| based on the simple principle of doing as little as possible
| and leaving everything until the last minute in case it
| resolves itself.
|
| Write a book review:
|
| > The JIT Productivity Method is an interesting new take on
| productivity. The author makes a compelling case for why
| doing less and leaving everything to the last minute can
| actually be more effective than the traditional approach of
| working hard now and playing later. The book is well-written
| and easy to follow, and the author's methods are definitely
| worth considering if you're looking for a new way to get
| things done.
|
| Write the first 5 paragraphs of the book:
|
| > The JIT Productivity Method is a revolutionary new system
| for getting things done. It's the antithesis of the
| traditional "work hard now, play later" approach, and it's
| based on the simple principle of doing as little as possible
| and leaving everything until the last minute in case it
| resolves itself.
|
| > The JIT Productivity Method is all about taking advantage
| of the fact that many things have a way of resolving
| themselves if you just give them a little time. Rather than
| working hard on something now and risking it not actually
| getting done, or worse, getting done poorly, the JIT approach
| suggests that you do as little as possible now and wait to
| see if the situation improves.
|
| > Of course, this isn't an approach that will work for
| everything. But the beauty of the JIT Productivity Method is
| that it's flexible. There are no hard and fast rules, and you
| can tailor the approach to fit your own unique situation.
|
| > If you're tired of the traditional productivity methods
| that always seem to fall short, then The JIT Productivity
| Method is definitely worth a read. It's a fresh, new take on
| productivity that just might help you get things done in a
| better, more effective way.
| doix wrote:
| Great minds think alike ;). I, too, have been playing
| around with the free OpenAI tokens trying to get it to
| write the book for me.
| JW_00000 wrote:
| You'd better have just waited and done nothing, because
| danielbln did it for you in the end, and the situation
| resolved itself. Behold the power of the JIT Productivity
| Method(tm).
| rodgerd wrote:
| Already there for you:
| https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/
| Sinidir wrote:
| What the hell. Why are you stealing my idea? I've been
| working on this for 30 years. Its about 10% done. I'll do the
| rest next weekend.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| But presumably there is valid info about being more productive.
| You claim to share such info in this very comment. It's a very
| specific subset of advice that you are identifying.
| ozim wrote:
| There is a joke:
|
| Boss is stepping outside of brand new BMW - good morning Joe,
| you see that brand new BMW, if you keep working hard and make
| more hours I will get new one next year!
| Joeri wrote:
| I used to devour this stuff in the beginning of my career,
| because I always felt like I was drowning in a job that was
| asking too much of me. Eventually though I got to a place where
| I no longer needed anymore of these tips. These productivity
| systems and life hacks are useful, so it is not bad to explore
| what is out there, but they are tools and tools are not useful
| unless they are set to a purpose. Also, it is easy to hit a
| point of diminishing returns, so in hindsight I kept looking
| after these life hacks for too long.
|
| Ultimately, for me (and everyone is different) it took an
| inversion of how I looked at time. Before I had a fixed set of
| things I wanted to cram into available time, and never felt
| like I managed this well. Realizing two things changed that:
| (a) work is effectively infinite and (b) the things worth doing
| or seeing exceed the capacity of a human life. This made me
| allocate my time differently: professionally I started
| radically prioritizing what I worked on and how I worked on it
| to dig up the most useful work from the infinite backlog
| (techniques: inbox zero, ooda loop, deliberate pauses for
| contemplation, job crafting). For my personal life I gave up on
| trying to keep up and spend my time doing things I enjoy, even
| if ultimately pointless (like reading HN), without feeling
| guilty to myself for the things not done. I also turned off
| notifications for almost everything, so I can choose what I
| spend time on instead of having it chosen for me by my masters
| in the cloud.
|
| Still, life has a way of getting in the way, so I'm trying to
| have a more mindful approach to life, accepting what happens
| instead of forcing it to be different. This is a work in
| progress.
| sudo_rm wrote:
| > (a) work is effectively infinite and (b) the things worth
| doing or seeing exceed the capacity of a human life.
|
| These are some of the main ideas in the book 4000 Weeks: Time
| Management for Mortals. I think it is one of those rare self
| help books that are actually worth a read.
| sawyna wrote:
| This is a great self realisation. I started to stop working
| after 6. It's been a pretty hard change, but feels amazing.
| shudza wrote:
| I was about to do something with my expanding procrastination
| habbit, but then you made me realize it's all good.
| stingraycharles wrote:
| Being more productive rarely leads to a happy and fulfilled
| life. It's often precisely those moments in life when I'm on my
| least productive, that I look back on as if I really lived.
|
| Of course, be mindful of your time, but learn how to use it
| wisely, rather than optimizing for "productivity" as observed
| by others.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Always needing to be "productive" or busy can be a sign that
| you're avoiding something else in your life. The classic
| example is the workaholic who is hiding from the reality that
| he doesn't like spending time with his spouse or family.
| Instead of confronting and solving that problem, he runs away
| from it by working 60 hour weeks.
| [deleted]
| bobthechef wrote:
| baby wrote:
| I wouldn't put it this way. I think sometimes life gets into
| the way of my work, and that's not a bad thing, and sometimes
| work gets into the way of my life, and I get shit done and
| feel good about it as well.
| lmm wrote:
| > Being more productive rarely leads to a happy and fulfilled
| life. It's often precisely those moments in life when I'm on
| my least productive, that I look back on as if I really
| lived.
|
| Hmm, I've had the opposite experience.
| throw149102 wrote:
| I think we might just have different definitions of
| productive. To me, writing code or reading a paper can be
| productive, but so can a conversation with my dad or a nice
| meal out. Basically I see "Productivity" and replace it with
| "Productivity towards producing more personal utility" where
| that utility can be anything - happiness, relaxation, actual
| goods and services, etc.
|
| Furthermore, I think putting on the hat of "productivity" can
| sometimes reveal unusual things. Like how a conversation with
| a friend is just repeating the same old dreary boring stuff,
| and if you put a little effort in you can have a more
| "productive" conversation.
| p1necone wrote:
| And sometimes the most productive thing of all with regards
| to long term utility is to stick your pantsless ass on the
| couch with a few beers and play video games.
| powerhour wrote:
| I see you've read my productivity blog!
| xkcd1963 wrote:
| It's nice to be able to live ones potential through. This
| desire seems to stem from observing others "oh, could I
| eventually accomplish the same, or reach the same level?". It
| seems to me though genuine happiness can also be found through
| other means.
| _the_inflator wrote:
| Who gets really rich if you follow the "Buy all your personal
| Guru's stuff"? "Buy a new course if you struggle with task X"
| is a simple mantra.
|
| The only way to boost productivity is to hire people. That's
| what these gurus usually do: hire stuff and let marketing
| (again: other people) spin it, like the single guy does all the
| work alone.
| verinus wrote:
| and what do you need for that?
|
| right: money!
|
| problem is: it's so much easier to get rich if you have money
| already...
| bodge5000 wrote:
| Easily one of the best get rich quick schemes is to create
| some overly complicated workflow (doesn't need to actually
| work) to get rich quick, and sell that to people.
|
| I once had the idea to write a book about it where the first
| page just says "write this book" and then 500 blank pages
| coliveira wrote:
| When I was just out of college I spent a couple of months
| reading that kind of literature. Then I started to realize that
| if I did everything they asked I wound't be myself anymore, I
| would be the image of an idealized "successful" person that
| these people write about. When I figured out that, I saw the
| whole think makes no sense.
| paroneayea wrote:
| There's something to trying to figure out how to adjust your
| productivity structures to be more productive, and then
| eventually you hit a falloff in terms of where it stops
| helping.
|
| This blogpost feels very ironic to me... I know I'm not the
| first to point it out, that the blogpost's obsession with a
| feeling of productivity is just way too meta given the blogpost
| itself, but the point where about 5 self-help resources are all
| quoted is the point where the whole thing started to feel a bit
| doomed to me.
| nvch wrote:
| It's like fishing or hunting for somebody. Only a few pieces of
| information will be today's catch (if I'll be lucky today), but
| the hunting time is well spent anyway.
| bribri wrote:
| It's a healthy balance.
|
| Watching Ali Abdaal and dissing all productivity techniques is
| like watching a Crossfitter and dissing all forms of physical
| exercise. Yes, some people take exercise too far, but most people
| do nothing and that's a much bigger problem.
|
| I see him as trying to push the envelope and give you a wide
| range of ideas. I don't try to copy everything he does, but he
| puts out a lot of ideas and usually some idea will stick.
|
| I do believe there's always a better way of doing something. I
| especially believe in the productivity techniques to increase
| self reflection and "leverage" like the "daily highlight" and
| "five minute journal". It doesn't matter how productive you are
| if you haven't sorted out your priorities.
| TrackerFF wrote:
| Hustle and grind. Create 7 streams of income. Work 18 hour days -
| anything less and you're a loser destined for mediocrity. Read 5
| books a week. Start trading stocks and crypto. Take cold showers,
| hit the gym. Optimize your schedule, log every minute spent.
| Ditch your loser friends and only hang out with likeminded -
| success breeds success. Sigma grindset. Moon or bust. If you're
| not worth $1 million liquid before 30, cut off your finger and
| work even harder. Analyze your productivity and always look for
| places to cut fat.
| biggerChris wrote:
| pacarvalho wrote:
| It is quite tough. What are your thoughts on if it is worth it?
| [deleted]
| lbrito wrote:
| $1 million is for losers. Its just dos comas. Real success is
| tres comas.
|
| https://www.russfest.net/home/tres-comas
| fastbenz wrote:
| that's why I'm Doraemon now
| onion2k wrote:
| _always look for places to cut fat_
|
| Ironically, you should also put butter in your coffee.
| schipplock wrote:
| why?
| onion2k wrote:
| There was a trend called 'bulletproof coffee' that went
| around SV and the startup world about a decade ago, where
| you were supposed to drink coffee with two spoons of butter
| and some 'brain enhancing' MCT oil in it. Lots of CEOs went
| mad for it. I don't think I've heard of anyone still
| drinking it for a long time.
|
| https://www.bulletproof.com/recipes/bulletproof-diet-
| recipes...
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| I believe the last line is supposed to be 'A pig in a cage on
| antibiotics.'
| Yajirobe wrote:
| Reminds me of this awesome video - The Hustle:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o7qjN3KF8U
| mgdlbp wrote:
| Or, from 2007, The Richter Scales - "Here Comes Another
| Bubble": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IQ_FOCE6I
|
| "build yourself a rocket ship / blast off on an ego trip" -
| lmao
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| This was a trip haha
| helpfulmandrill wrote:
| Well that was uncomfortable...
| j7ake wrote:
| Great, now I will never be able to read Marcus Aurelius again
| without associating it with this satire.
| elenaferrantes wrote:
| Fan of Ryan Holiday ? ;-) I'm always wondering : is this
| guy just a marketing scam or does he worth listening to ?
| notfromhere wrote:
| Lonely dudes on the internet ruined stoicism for everyone
| instagraham wrote:
| After listening to "Tools of Titans" by Tim Ferris, this
| video accurately captures all the things it implies a hustler
| ought to do in a day. Except the actual advice is probably to
| do 2-3x more affirmations and crunches and smoothies and
| upside down hangs and meditation and so on.
| weakfish wrote:
| This is my all time favorite video to show people
|
| > "Check robinhood. All red, just as I expected."
| Trasmatta wrote:
| The videos on that channel are so good that they're painful
| to watch, when you realize how closely it matches the life
| you're living.
|
| This one is my favorite (or "least favorite" depending on how
| hard it hits on any given day):
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYvhC_RdIwQ
|
| I feel like the people doing that channel could write a very
| effective modern Office Space.
| omginternets wrote:
| The last minute of him stammering on the zoom call makes me
| want to hide under the bed.
| willcipriano wrote:
| My favorite: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FDoH15ylAeo
| easton wrote:
| The most recent one, "Leadership Sync", pops into my head
| in pretty much every meeting I've had in the last two
| weeks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RAMRukKqQg
| metadat wrote:
| I instead use words like "meet", "create", or other
| concrete and discrete <verb-action> and try to otherwise
| avoid the managerial douche buzzwords IRL.
|
| I submit it's unnecessary and pointlessly toolish to use
| such phrasing and lingo. People who speak that way
| deserve judgment; it's lazy and the buzzwords are
| variations on low entropy / meaningless vagaries.
| coffee_beqn wrote:
| I watched that multiple times after delivering a big
| feature I had to crunch on late last year. Of course my
| reward was a"meets expectations " modest raise.
| phatfish wrote:
| Reminds me a bit of "The Website Is Down":
| https://www.youtube.com/c/jrwyt-thewebsiteisdown/videos
| the_af wrote:
| This video is hilarious (like many on that channel). What
| cracks me up is the little jokes you can miss unless you
| pause some frames, like
|
| "...but not before I read my blogs" --> "What Ancient
| Mayans Can Teach You About Living Your Best Life"
|
| "and journal about creativity" --> "sleep retrospective,
| epiphanies: 0"
| ravi-delia wrote:
| The production value is just immaculate. Every frame is
| so clearly meticulously constructed to portray the
| emptiest imaginable life. A man going nowhere at maximum
| speed, really more of an absence than a man. It's so very
| close to being too painful to be funny, and I've never
| even believed in the grind. Just pity for a wretched
| soul.
| idrios wrote:
| Probably the most production value they put into a video
| was their Virtual Coachella one
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=67sfZfreOrU
|
| Which has way fewer views than it deserves, possibly for
| algorithm reasons because it was given a cease & desist
| by actual Coachella
| https://mobile.twitter.com/EFF/status/1373006482397032449
| m_mueller wrote:
| They have so many other good ones - "Microservices",
| "Senior Engineer", "Ballmercon", "Computertime with
| Gooch" are still my favourites.
| the_af wrote:
| Virtual Coachella is a hilarious take on a dystopian
| hellscape (not far from our present time). I love it.
| Like a Black Mirror episode, only condensed so that every
| single second is brilliant and packed with jokes.
| potas wrote:
| > A man going nowhere at maximum speed, really more of an
| absence than a man.
|
| Dude, that's a beautiful summary not only of the video
| but of the entire productivity cult.
| hodgesrm wrote:
| It's like Portlandia for software developers.
| DiggyJohnson wrote:
| Oh my god
| colpabar wrote:
| it is insane to me that this channel is being discussed
| today because literally 2 days ago it was recommended to me
| on youtube.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8OnoxKotPQ
| coffee_beqn wrote:
| It is very much inside jokes for professionals in the
| tech industry. Very underrated gem
| memorable wrote:
| Alternative front-end version:
| https://yewtu.be/watch?v=DYvhC_RdIwQ
| cercatrova wrote:
| The one about microservices is incredible:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8OnoxKotPQ
| wizofaus wrote:
| Gold!
| jamil7 wrote:
| 2 Years later I still have trouble watching this one, hits
| too close to home for an old job I had.
| epolanski wrote:
| Reminds me when I had to sort some payments FE-wise which
| was a very trivial array sort (there was at most 50
| payments per page, nothing impactful performance-wise) on
| a json array which had a timestamp value, but CTO got
| involved with this triviality for some reason and started
| blabbering of how business logic had to be on the
| backend.
|
| I literally had a working feature branch in 10 minutes,
| but it ended up being a 6 weeks job involving architects,
| devops, 3 backend engineers to have a microservice
| implemented in GO (which basically no backender knew) to
| handle those payments sorting. I'm not kidding.
|
| I didn't got a promotion to staff engineer or architect
| few months later because CTO was fixated with "micro
| services experts" which basically consisted of anyone
| putting Go on their CV and having an AWS certification.
|
| The guys hired were so sweet, they would spend like
| months repeating in the daily every day they were doing
| analysis and understanding our architecture, just to
| produce after 8 weeks a pdf of few pages with their in-
| depth analysis of Kafka vs RabbitMQ which was basically a
| summary of their landing pages lol.
|
| I love the information economy.
| [deleted]
| WelcomeShorty wrote:
| So... that's me. FCUK. I really need to listen to these
| "work life balance" types more.
| xivzgrev wrote:
| "Read Marcus Aurelius - meditations. didn't understand shit"
|
| LOL
| jkereako wrote:
| Thank you for this.
| TrackerFF wrote:
| The real deal folks
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjfwxZcsKoI
| t00ny wrote:
| Ouch
| badpun wrote:
| Wow. This is literally poison for the mind and soul.
| jedberg wrote:
| I honestly can't tell if this is satire or not.
| tass wrote:
| I honestly thought it was satire until the comments showed
| otherwise. Eat clean... cocktails. Hustle by taking long
| drives.
| d0mine wrote:
| And the rest? What is wrong with keeping a schedule,
| running, resistance training, eating healthy?
|
| Also, long drives are mentioned in the context of "unwind
| after work" (I see nothing obviously wrong with it).
|
| Alcohol is bad, avoid it if you can but no social life
| may be worse.
| tass wrote:
| None of that is inherently bad. He talks a lot of working
| hard to maintain multiple brands/companies while
| everything shown is pure vanity, which is why I thought
| it was satire.
|
| I don't know anything about what he does but in reality
| people don't have time to work out twice a day, take long
| relaxing drives, meet their friends, eat healthy and do
| 5x the work of an average CEO.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| When I read "24 year old CEO" I think of Hinton:
|
| http://www.smashcompany.com/business/what-happens-when-
| the-b...
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| The real Patrick Batemen folks
| BbzzbB wrote:
| The funniest part about this video is how he gets
| absolutely nothing done professionally except read two
| emails. Driving around to flash his expensive (leased) car
| doesn't count.
| omega3 wrote:
| Isn't this a satire?
| BbzzbB wrote:
| Not intentionally anyway. If it was intentional, it was
| to grab attention (like include a mistake in a tweet),
| but it seems serious and on-brand for an
| influencerpreneur.
| trebbble wrote:
| These kinds of windows into a life explain how some
| entrepreneur/CEO types can be owner and/or CEO of like
| three businesses, on the board of a couple others, in
| some kind of advisory role on a couple startups, and so
| on, and still always seem to be starting or trying to get
| a hand in some new thing: it's because they don't really
| do jack shit.
|
| Meanwhile the peons get an anti-moonlighting clause and
| absurd claims over any work done in off-hours.
| chii wrote:
| Being an owner (with a title of CEO) means they aren't
| spending their labour, or time, but merely capital.
| Therefore, it's correct that they don't get jackshit
| done.
|
| However, a real CEO, without any capital investment in
| the company themselves, would get fired if they did that
| imho. Or at least, if i were the owner, and that's what i
| observe the CEO i hired to run the company.
| 8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote:
| Nothing says you're a successful high-impact CEO like
| having a camera crew following you around all day as you
| work out twice and eat salad.
| neilv wrote:
| Finally, an innovation in dating site profiles!
| agota wrote:
| That was my first thought as well. Is this a dating
| profile?
| dominotw wrote:
| kept waiting for the punchline that never dropped.
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| I stumbled upon these guys in NYC! They've got the most
| relatable videos.
| memorable wrote:
| Alternative front-end version:
| https://yewtu.be/watch?v=_o7qjN3KF8U
| the_prophet314 wrote:
| It is really hard to type without a few fingers now.
| grudg3 wrote:
| I read this in my head like the intro to Trainspotting.
| R0b0t1 wrote:
| Fitting, overwork is a coping behavior for some people. Just
| like taking drugs is for others.
| owow123 wrote:
| 18 hours a day? Telsa ran on 4 hours sleep, stop slacking.
|
| Putting you on PIP for this attitude, not very "big org"
| mindset.
| the_af wrote:
| You can shave some slacking off time by skipping lunch and
| dinner and instead chugging some Silicon Valley energy drink
| mix, marketed with a fancy name.
|
| Wasting time with meals is for unsuccessful losers!
| fleddr wrote:
| My secret for success, you ask?
|
| I get up at 2AM, with a smile. Then do 7 hours of running after
| which I have my usual 3 racks of eggs for breakfast, whilst I
| speed read 3 books. I'm fluent in one language: the language of
| success, which I generously share to willing students on
| LinkedIn.
|
| A thread (1/74)...
| slater wrote:
| lol, check out this loser, doing only 7 hours of running? Get
| real.
| dvfjsdhgfv wrote:
| Sounds like the beginning of a Radiohead song.
| Suro wrote:
| Fitter happier
|
| More productive
|
| Comfortable
|
| Not drinking too much
|
| Regular exercise at the gym (3 days a week)
|
| Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries
|
| At ease
|
| Eating well (no more microwave dinners and saturated fats)
|
| A patient, better driver
|
| ...
| synaesthesisx wrote:
| This song is literally what came to mind as well.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4SzvsMFaek
| smolder wrote:
| Still cries at a good film.
|
| Still kisses with saliva.
|
| That song was so good at making what generally reads like a
| healthy lifestyle seem hollow and pointless. I love it, even
| as I question whether its effect on my teenaged self was a
| good one, or maybe just fueled my neuroticism. It makes me
| look at life a little bit more like an opportunity to be
| creative and make risky, weird choices and less like a
| continuous process of self improvement, for better or worse.
| leo250 wrote:
| "You can always be thinner, look better"
| codyZ wrote:
| I think that I actually 'L - O - L' at most three times a year
| when reading on my computer. "cut off your finger and work even
| harder." is the best one yet!
| jstarfish wrote:
| Swap out the financial goals with spiritual goals and that
| describes the daily routine of a cult member.
|
| Most of them are designed to keep you busy with introspective
| or pointless busywork so you're too tired to protest or don't
| notice the things going on around you-- like the leader
| sleeping with your spouse while robbing you blind.
| DiffEq wrote:
| I see what you are saying but I, and some others I know who try
| to live this way, find it fun and fulfilling. So what is the
| problem?
| complianceowl wrote:
| This comment was f-in poetic.
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| I get that this is satire but could you expand on why people
| who want to be healthy + productive "have it wrong" (which I
| feel your satirical comment alludes to?)
|
| You're "taking the piss" at people who value working hard/long
| hours, reading, trying to be successful financially, taking
| care of their health/fitness, cutting ties with loser friends
| (drug addicts? bums?)
| matsemann wrote:
| It's not that any one of them is wrong. It's overdoing them,
| or doing them all at once to the detriment of the others.
|
| Or more likely: the image being put forward isn't even real,
| because it's not enough hours in a day to do them all.
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| > doing them all at once to the detriment of the others.
|
| a situation comes to mind
|
| a father who has to ignore his wife + children because he's
| addicted to "the grind/hustle" of working 12+ hour days and
| traveling... so he can make money... for his wife +
| children
|
| is there true net detriment in that case? i'm sure the wife
| + children appreciate the extra income?
| 0xFF0123 wrote:
| It depends, there's obviously a happy medium between the
| two extremes. Optimising for family happiness, sure.
| Optimising for making money and expecting that to return
| family happiness, probably not.
| the_af wrote:
| > _is there true net detriment in that case?_
|
| Yes.
|
| > _i 'm sure the wife + children appreciate the extra
| income?_
|
| Probably appreciate the money and resent the guy. Also,
| the wife also probably wants a professional career for
| herself (or to pursue activities away from home and the
| kids) -- so old-fashioned of you to guess she will want
| to play the housewife.
|
| The children would probably prefer a father who was
| available.
|
| If this guy is ignoring them, as you put it, that
| marriage will probably not end well, and the family
| itself will be tested.
|
| If the guy is going to spend 12 hours daily away from
| home working, then "hit the gym", read 5 books a day,
| then travel a lot for work, _maybe_ he doesn 't want a
| family; maybe he could just donate a portion of his money
| to random strangers.
| Swizec wrote:
| It's like people who spend so much time optimizing their
| perfect productivity system that it doesn't leave any time
| for doing the things. Their entire life is about managing the
| productivity system.
|
| Talking about the work !== doing the work. 9 times out of 10
| you're better off doing something, anything, than worrying
| about productivity. Go _do_ stuff.
|
| Doing every productivity hack and good habit in something
| like Ferris's Tools of Titans is literally a full time job if
| not more.
|
| I have the same critique for note taking porn.
| epolanski wrote:
| There's nothing wrong in it, if taken lightly and in a
| healthy positive manner.
|
| I think he's parodying the extreme fixation with one's
| productivity.
| ravenstine wrote:
| Not who you're replying to, but the problem I see with
| productivity porn is that it completely ignores the luck
| involved in success. We all have agency, but some people will
| work more hours and take more ice baths than everyone else
| and still end up poor and irrelevant. Some people are better
| off realizing they don't have "it" and taking a more relaxed
| approach to life.
| wizofaus wrote:
| A good deal of that luck probably occurs at the point of
| conception too.
| posix86 wrote:
| I'm open for different opinions, but in my view, being more
| productive for its own sake is fundamentally misinformed.
| Being productive means being more efficient at producing
| output. To get there, you need to put effort into optimizing
| your process. This effort is only worth it if you know that
| you NEED more output, in order to reach some OTHER goal. More
| efficiency in of itself is a misaligned goal. It doesn't lead
| to happyness. In fact, it seems to me, most of those gurus,
| and their followers seem to be about boasting their
| productivity dick. It's like flaunting money: a status symbol
| that doesn't make you happy in of itself. If you're making
| honey because you think just simply having money will make
| you happy, you'll be leading a miserable life.
|
| That's not what the article is about but it relates to what
| you said.
| eptcyka wrote:
| Valuing hard work, reading and trying to be financially
| successful is something completely unrelated to trying to do
| 18 hour work days, skimming several books a day, and running
| the hamster wheel off the peg and into the frying pan. Hard
| work is often what is required to be successful, but just
| mindlessly toiling away is not the key ingredient to success.
|
| Also, what good is a friend who wouldn't come to your aid in
| the hardest of times?
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| > Valuing hard work, reading and trying to be financially
| successful is something completely unrelated to trying to
| do 18 hour work days
|
| Are you trying to say "it's easy to be financially
| successful by working 8 hours a day instead of 18 hours"?
|
| like... it's "overstated" that people think they need to
| "work more/work harder" to become successful?
| eptcyka wrote:
| I'd say you'll probably spend more money on medical bills
| I'd you were to work 18 hour days 5 days a week for any
| meaningful amount of time. Or one might be sorely
| mistaken about what constitutes 18 hour work days - does
| that include travel and eating time too?
| austinjp wrote:
| Define "successful".
| lmm wrote:
| Easy, no. Easier, yes. People absolutely overvalue
| putting in more time/effort, which actually has pretty
| poor returns.
| CSMastermind wrote:
| Some people who push these values on social media care way
| more about the image of being a "successful person" than
| actually doing what it takes to achieve success (which rarely
| involves bragging about how hard you work on social media).
|
| They're at best untrustworthy sources and at worst snakeoil
| salesmen.
|
| Speaking of the latter there's a special brand of cognitive
| dissonance being shown here.
|
| If there were some surefire way to be rich and happy, etc. in
| a very short period of time. A system so simple that anyone
| could follow it then why doesn't everyone?
|
| If you really believe that these habits would make anyone
| successful then you have to explain why everyone isn't doing
| it.
|
| And they convince others and themselves that it's because
| most people aren't willing to do what it takes. They won't
| sacrifice their comfort or friends or whatever to the point
| that it takes to be successful.
|
| If you do all these things are still aren't rich and retired?
| Well it must mean you haven't sacrificed enough or worked
| hard enough or whatever!
|
| The real answer is that none of these habits are a guarantee
| of success. Are they good ideas? Sure! Like for sure eat
| healthy, get enough sleep, read books, and work out.
|
| Like everything though there are tradeoffs, often on your
| time, and moderation can be the key for most people. There
| are other inputs into your success and there's no one size
| fits all plan that works for everyone.
| bulbosaur123 wrote:
| > If you really believe that these habits would make anyone
| successful then you have to explain why everyone isn't
| doing it.
|
| Everyone else isn't doing it, because it's really, really
| hard to stick to the habits.
|
| Same reason why everyone else isn't walking with a ripped
| physique and six-pack. It's simple, just work out 3x a week
| and count your calories. Why isn't everyone shredded?
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| > Some people who push these values on social media care
| way more about the image of being a "successful person"
| than actually doing what it takes to achieve success (which
| rarely involves bragging about how hard you work on social
| media).
|
| Devil's advocate but
|
| you can measurably tell if you are financially successful
| (from working hard/long hours) and our healthy fitness wise
| (from going to the gym/eating clean/going for a run/etc.)
|
| you can also measurably tell if you are in a good headspace
| from meditation/yoga/reading
|
| I'm the first person to poop on people who "do it for the
| Gram" but...
|
| Most people I know who post about being successful are the
| same people who wouldn't want their image hurt by being
| caught in a lie.
|
| aka... they aren't really "fronting", they are really
| "about it" when it comes to living a "let's talk about it"
| lifestyle
| CSMastermind wrote:
| I think time helps shape perspectives here.
|
| It can be really hard to tell someone's career or life
| trajectory in the moment or even in 1, 2, or 5 years.
|
| I'm 35 now so I have the benefit of hindsight looking
| back on the decisions different people my age have made
| and while I'd be the first to caution against potential
| bias in data I can say definitively that the people who
| were into FIRE or grindset or whatever before those terms
| even existed have ended up markedly worse off by their
| own definition of success than people who took more
| traditional routes.
|
| There are exceptions, I know one person who made millions
| on cryptocurrency for example. But he's the one exception
| to the rule I can think of.
|
| The rest ended up no better off than their peers who
| weren't out there posting every motivational quote on
| social media or eliminating their social lives to write
| and ebook about credit card reward points.
|
| So was it worth it? I doubt it. The ROI seems to be
| negligible or even negative to me.
|
| It turns out there was no shortcut to wealth and
| happiness after all.
| bogdanoff_2 wrote:
| >the people who were into FIRE [...] have ended up
| markedly worse off by their own definition of success
| than people who took more traditional routes.
|
| Can you please elaborate?
| CSMastermind wrote:
| Sure, the people I know who:
|
| - Focused on getting passive income streams set up
| through real estate, stock investment, content creation,
| retail arbitrage, etc.
|
| - Were particularly frugal with their money and avoided
| travel, parties, 'lifestyle creep', etc.
|
| - Attempted to min/max their careers by switching jobs
| every 1.5 to 2 years and negotiating hard each time.
|
| Are:
|
| - Still not retired in their mid to late 30s.
|
| - On track to retire in their early 50s.
|
| - Slightly behind their peers in terms of career
| progression.
|
| While those who joined big tech, worked hard, and let
| their equity compound are basically on pace to retire at
| the same age while also getting to spend their youth
| traveling, partying, and generally enjoying life.
|
| Plus, I've found the people who were hyper focused on
| retiring early or achieving financial independence to be
| less happy and more self-critical about their financial
| decisions.
| agota wrote:
| I believe that one reason for this is that FIRE, passive
| income, entrepreneurship, etc. attracts people who are
| looking for shortcuts.
|
| This means that they are optimizing for the short term,
| which is counterproductive to success in any area of
| life.
|
| Back in the 2010s we saw this with niche sites, ebooks,
| info products, etc.
|
| It worked for some but it's probably safe to say that
| learning to code and getting a tech job would have had
| better ROI for most people who went down that route.
|
| At the moment we are seeing this in the crypto space,
| where you have all these guys in their 20s who are
| "investing in crypto" (gambling) because they want a
| Lamborghini ASAP.
|
| They would likely be better off learning to code and
| getting a tech job, but they can't see it at the moment
| because they don't have the perspective that comes with
| time.
| agota wrote:
| >Plus, I've found the people who were hyper focused on
| retiring early or achieving financial independence to be
| less happy and more self-critical about their financial
| decisions.
|
| I also wanted to comment on this.
|
| What I have observed about FIRE folks is that they start
| optimizing everything for FIRE.
|
| This isn't a healthy way to live, certainly not in the
| long run, and it's not like this goes away once they
| reach FIRE.
|
| Here's an article where Mrs. Money Mustache shared how
| uncomfortable she was about her parents taking her and
| their son to the movies, then to an ice cream place.
|
| She was already retired, literally a millionaire.
|
| https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/07/27/youll-never-
| be-no...
| badpun wrote:
| > While those who joined big tech, worked hard, and let
| their equity compound are basically on pace to retire at
| the same age while also getting to spend their youth
| traveling, partying, and generally enjoying life.
|
| I though joining big tech and riding raises and
| promotions is basically the mainstream way to FIRE these
| days? Side hustles are ridiculous small potatoes in
| comparison.
| hparadiz wrote:
| I've personally not done any of that and just became a
| home owner but it has only been possible from crypto
| investments in which I got extremely lucky. It had
| absolutely nothing to do with my tech career or how much
| extra work I do outside my 9-5.
| jwhiles wrote:
| I think you have a somewhat distorted understanding of
| what FIRE means, or at least one that is different to my
| own understanding of the term.
|
| I think of FIRE as essentially trying to optimise
| lifestyle and work in order to quickly reach a point
| where you don't need to work by paying attention to your
| income and expenses. This doesn't necessarily imply
| extreme frugality, and I think the mindset should
| actually make you more likely to go into big tech or the
| like because increasing income has a bigger impact than
| decreasing expenditure on for most people.
|
| For sure there are people in the space who are trying to
| sell people on the idea that drinking coffee or not is
| the factor in when they will retire - but these people
| are fundamentally hucksters I think.
| godmode2019 wrote:
| I think you are forgetting to factor in risk,
|
| Those paths are much more risky, a few make it big most
| don't. But that's the trade off people willingly make, a
| small shot at making it big, or living a normal upper
| middle class fully employed lifestyle.
|
| The way I think about it is, if you are on a deserted
| island, but you have made a nice life for yourself,
| shelter, water, food.
|
| Do you risk pulling it all down to make a raft to sail
| into the unknown searching for somewhere better.
|
| May people stay put and justify their stagnant lifestyle
| by how they are slightly ahead of the people whos raft
| sunk and had to swim back and start over.
|
| Those people are the movers the shakers of the world,
| they take in the risk for something more in life.
|
| Every time you fail you are failing upwards, learning
| skills you didn't have before becoming stronger and
| building better rafts.
| wizofaus wrote:
| But that's never how it's sold - "do all these things and
| maybe increase your chance of becoming phenomenally
| successful by 1%". Almost by definition a tiny percentage
| of people will ever be "phenomenally" successful. And the
| ones that do probably would do so with or without these
| sorts of "tips".
| mdiesel wrote:
| And most people that do then look back on their lives and
| point to certain things they did that sets them apart.
| Like an old person healthy at 100 saying they studiously
| avoided beans and that's the sole reason they're still
| fit and well.
|
| That's not to say the advice isn't sound, maybe it is,
| but if it's advice based on N=1 I'm not about to change
| my lifestyle.
| patentatt wrote:
| Sometimes, some people fail down too, and it damages
| them. If you think that all failure is 'failing up,' I'd
| suggest you haven't _really_ failed, and have just
| experienced setbacks.
| Retric wrote:
| It's really tempting to assuming the things you think are
| important are what actually result in success. Nobody
| sees all the possible lives they could have had.
|
| Daily jogging seems like a healthy choice when you
| wheren't hit by a car etc etc.
|
| Add in all the actual lying and it's easy to get an
| incredibly distorted view of reality.
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| Avoiding jogging (in lieu of gaining obesity/any various
| degree of issues that come from lack of exercise) in fear
| of getting hit by a car seems irrational, wouldn't you
| agree?
|
| You should strive for "perfect". If "perfect" is healthy
| and healthy means go for a run (with risks), you have to
| weigh it against the alternative (don't run, be
| unhealthy).
| Retric wrote:
| That's hardly the only options.
|
| If you want to give useful advice it's worth considering
| what might happen to those reading it not just your lucky
| history of avoiding problems. Avoiding jogging outside in
| favor of a treadmill is a net increase in safety without
| negative health impacts. Replacing it with an elliptical
| further reduces risks etc.
|
| On the other hand if you want sell a lifestyle then
| treadmills etc are boring. Which is why a major reason so
| much popular advice is terrible.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| The guy spends so much time optimizing every minute of his
| day that he's functionally not "living."
|
| Also notice he has literally _no_ human interaction.
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| what do we define as living?
|
| i have many friends who swear it is more fun to work than
| to "sit around watching netflix/hang out with friends
| passing time/drinking alcohol"
| the_af wrote:
| Before we define living, please define what "work" and
| "productivity" mean to you.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| Did you watch the video? Not being antagonistic or
| anything, it's just necessary for my response to make
| sense.
| coldtea wrote:
| > _but could you expand on why people who want to be healthy
| + productive "have it wrong"_
|
| First, because both healthy and productive have long become a
| rat race.
|
| In that sense, it's not about some e.g. obese person wanting
| to lose weight anymore, or about some lazy person wanting to
| get their act together and be more productive, but
| increasingly about an obsession with dieting and working out,
| or with working all the time to "make it" and hustling
| constantly.
|
| Second, because for many those aren't even their own goals,
| just things instilled in them by influencers, productivity
| and health peddlers, the media, and co, as a substitute for a
| meaningful work and a balanced way of life.
|
| Third, because even those dubious goals are often not
| followed anyway, instead people obsess with productivity and
| health "porn", todo systems, micro-managing their day (or
| meals), measurbating, and so on, as opposed to a simple,
| natural approach to those things.
| [deleted]
| xkcd1963 wrote:
| If you abandon your drug addict friends and bums that only
| shows that somebody with a stronger character wouldn't fear
| aquiring their attributes nor would aquire them.
| TrackerFF wrote:
| Nothing wrong with living a healthy lifestyle (healthy diet,
| working out, taking care of your mental health) and being
| ambitious about your career.
|
| But these brofluencers (Andrew Tate being the latest one)
| just regurgitate and compound the same ol' to new levels.
| They mostly cater to young, impressionable, and desperate
| kids - promising that if you just follow these easy steps,
| then luck will come your way. And the whole hustle porn
| community fetishizes working every single waking hour ("the
| grind") doing something that everyone else is doing - your
| edge is to basically worker harder and cheaper than anyone
| else.
|
| It's always the same _" bro, just start a drop-shipping
| business for passive income, create your own brand of
| [saturated market item], also do [FX/Crypto/options] day
| trading. It's all about grinding, I promise bro - but first,
| buy my super alpha prestige mentoring package for $3k"_
| spiel.
|
| And if you're not driving a lambo, living in a mansion with
| your super model by the age of 30, you just didn't hustle and
| grind hard enough.
|
| These communities tend to obsess over things like
| productivity - everything to save up space for the grind.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| It's like Evangelical Capitalism. Or something.
|
| We're deep into the land of MLM attitudes - usually without
| the _explicit_ MLM pyramid - and Warrior Forum grifters.
|
| It's not a new scene. Outside of Techia, a site called The
| Salty Droid has been tracking some of the worst excesses
| for over a decade now.
| psyc wrote:
| I'm fine with these things insofar as they are factually in
| service to a substantial undertaking. The routine cannot be
| the undertaking, nor am I impressed by such a routine in
| search of an undertaking. The camera should only be on the
| routine, the 'secrets of success', rarely as a glimpse behind
| the scenes. As a rule, the camera should be on the worthy
| venture.
| ziddoap wrote:
| Parent poster is referring to the people that take "healthy
| and productive", condense it, distill it, then shoot it into
| their veins.
|
| At some threshold it becomes an obsession, which is not
| great.
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| why would anybody want to be unhealthy and unproductive?
| what is to be gained from those two characteristics?
| makeitdouble wrote:
| The more interesting take to me is that to live a
| meaningful life, you probably want to do a lot of things
| that are not labeled "productive", and take paths that
| are not labelled as "healthy".
|
| For most of us the core of our life doesn't fit into neat
| categories, and trying to throw away stuff that aren't
| "productive" wouldn't help.
| gedy wrote:
| The opposite of these people is not necessarily
| "unhealthy and unproductive".
| the_af wrote:
| I don't think that's a reasonable take on the comment
| you're replying to.
|
| The answer to mindless obsession with health,
| productivity and success fads for entrepreneurs is not to
| become unhealthy and unproductive.
|
| Though, on that note, what do these "productivity" and
| "success" even mean? Why is being extremely productive a
| worthy goal? Leisure is good, too.
| maximus-decimus wrote:
| Fun. The answer is fun.
|
| But obviously, it's not that you have fun eating because
| you're unhealthy, it's that you're unhealthy because you
| eat stuff for enjoyment.
|
| Similarly, being unproductive isn't fun in itself, but
| having fun means almost by definition not being
| productive. If a hobby is productive, it's not really a
| hobby.
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| What is fun these days? Maybe fun is being productive,
| working out, and making money.
|
| How many hobbies really beat the dopamine hit of ADHD-
| tweaked TikTok?
| RalfWausE wrote:
| "Fun" is a too short termed word i think... "happieness"
| would perhaps be better:
|
| Riding a sailboat hard on the wind, watching the foam of
| the waves splatter onto the deck...
|
| Reading a book in a comfy chair, only accompanied by the
| sounds of a fire...
|
| Learning something new that changes your worldview
| completely...
|
| Cooking together with your partner...
|
| Watching your children grow...
|
| "Fun"... "fun" is short lived like the buzz you get from
| a glass of good whiskey, i would say its better to strive
| for happieness
| the_af wrote:
| > _What is fun these days?_
|
| Fun can be many things, and it's definitely not
| constrained to being "productive".
|
| What does being productive even mean to you?
|
| If you do everything productivity porn tells you to do,
| you probably won't be "successful" anyway, and you'll
| live an empty, Patrick Batesman life.
| samatman wrote:
| There is a whole world of lucrative fun out there.
|
| One thing about a livelihood though: it's never fun all
| the time.
|
| The same is true of many serious hobbies however.
|
| Fun certainly doesn't have to be productive, nor is it an
| antonym.
| smiddereens wrote:
| leokennis wrote:
| I'm not qualified to comment on the health factor. In general
| striving to be healthy is good, no contest there.
|
| But regarding working those long and hard hours (which then
| cannot be spent on other things) maybe we should heed the
| advice of the dying:
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-
| fiv...
|
| > 2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard. > > "This came from
| every male patient that I nursed. They missed their
| children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women
| also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older
| generation, many of the female patients had not been
| breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted
| spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work
| existence."
| GuB-42 wrote:
| I don't believe in regrets.
|
| Regrets are a made up fiction.
|
| As an example, let's talk about the "I missed my children's
| youth". You imagine an alternative life where you would
| have spent more time with your children, most likely
| idealized. But in reality, maybe it wouldn't have been a
| better life. You did things when you weren't with your
| children, some of them good things or at least leading to
| good things, these would be lost in your alternate life.
| And is it that much a difference seeing your children 4
| hours instead of 2, maybe it will just make you regret not
| having 6 hours, a problem is if you are framing your
| alternative life in the context of your real life.
|
| You only have one life, you can't see alternate realities,
| you don't know which are the better ones. But one thing for
| sure, if you regret "not living true to yourself", rest
| assured, nothing is more true than the life you actually
| lived, it is in these alternate realities that you are not
| yourself.
|
| Don't take advise from the dying, take advise from the
| living. If someone has decided to spend more time with his
| children and feels better _now_ , it can be valuable
| advise, because it is real life, not a fiction.
| arcturus17 wrote:
| Where I live, dads spend much more time with their kids
| than _their_ dads ever did, thanks to a shifting culture.
|
| I'll hear them nag occasionally about not being able to
| play enough golf (they're also very young dads, and that
| gets better with time). But I know them well and I do not
| feel a single one of them is miserable because they spend
| too much time with their kids - they are very deeply
| fulfilled.
|
| I'm sure the opposite is still perfectly possible - men
| that would prefer a traditional model where they could
| focus their time in energy on work, while the woman or
| extended family takes care of the kids. But this is not
| what I'm observing around me, in my small universe.
|
| You also may not believe in regret, but regret very much
| exists - it is a universal human emotion, of which
| deathbed regrets are a particular case. Projecting what
| we will think about our lives in our final moments is as
| old as the stoics, and a very valuable exercise for many
| people.
|
| Indeed, maybe a dying man may never have had the makeup
| or propensities to live the alternative life he
| fantasises on his deathbed. But if you believe in free
| will at all, then their insight is no less valuable.
| notfromhere wrote:
| Regrets are real because there is nothing more clarifying
| about life than when it's about to end.
| verinus wrote:
| Maybe you don't but as everybody is caught in his own
| world it doesn't matter...
|
| What this thought expresses in my opinion is: I wish I
| lived a more balanced life!
|
| what everybody seems to miss as it does not fit in the
| grand dream beeing sold: chance is the largest part of
| being successful. you can tip the scales marginally by
| working hard, but in truth the most important part is
| just luck...
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| For anybody who is just scrolling by and not clicking any
| links:
|
| Top five regrets of the dying
|
| 1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to
| myself, not the life others expected of me.
|
| 2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
|
| 3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
|
| 4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
|
| 5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
| satisfice wrote:
| Opposite list:
|
| 1. I wish I'd have cared more about others than my own
| "truths."
|
| 2. I wish I had applied myself more and realized my
| potential.
|
| 3. I wish I'd had the discipline to hide my feelings
| instead of burdening my friends and family so much with
| drama.
|
| 4. I wish I hadn't let my "friends" dominate my life.
|
| 5. I wish I hadn't been so obsessed with happiness, and
| had appreciated contentment instead.
| borroka wrote:
| This list has been circulating forever, following the
| publication of the book, and I believe they should be
| called "top five very theoretical and after the fact and
| with no empirical evidence they are regrets and they
| would do something different if in the same position of
| the dying".
|
| Now, think of those who like to eat until they are full,
| those 7k calorie meals. There are many such cases,
| especially in the United States. After such a large meal,
| which would frighten weaker stomachs, if they were asked,
| "Do you regret eating like that?" they would almost
| certainly say yes. But they would do it again tomorrow,
| some would say because they have a medical condition,
| others because they love to eat and don't mind having
| problems with walking, diabetes, and all the assorted
| ailments that go hand in hand with overeating, or
| alcohol, or any combination of the two.
|
| In a moment of tremendous weakness, of fear of crossing
| the Acheron, when asked "do you regret working so hard?"
| even the laziest worker the world has ever seen, the
| anti-Stakanov, would say, "yes, I do, it's one of my
| biggest regrets."
|
| Some of my friends did not continue studying after middle
| school and sometimes say, "I would have/should have
| continued studying," regardless of the fact that at that
| time they were not inclined to open a textbook even with
| a gun pointed at their head. But in their minds, if they
| had a chance to go back in time and armed with motivation
| that they did not have at the time, they would study, of
| course they would. But they only like the idea, not the
| action. They are the same people. And it's the same for
| those five regrets, the "if I had $10 million, I would
| give $9.5 million to charity." But they don't have that
| $10 million.
| lupire wrote:
| throw149102 wrote:
| I mean this is funny but this isn't at all what the post is
| about. What it means by "productivity porn" is only
| tangentially related with the hustle sigma male trillionaire
| grindset stuff.
| Cockbrand wrote:
| All of this, plus - don't forget to have fun! Work hard, play
| hard.
| code_runner wrote:
| A just-out-of-college co-worker of mine pops into my LinkedIn
| feed regularly following people talking about "hard assets" and
| retiring from their corporate job by 40... I don't know him
| well enough to say it, but I wonder if he realizes they now
| have the job of being a landlord and influencer... and anybody
| can yell numbers about revenue streams on a video (which they
| probably learned in their time in corporate America)
| baal80spam wrote:
| > Work 18 hour days
|
| ...and meditate the other 6.
| ourmandave wrote:
| Ultimate life hack:
|
| 1. Dude, move to Venus where a day is 5,832 hours.
|
| 2. Become a 10,000 hour expert in less than a weekend bro!
|
| 3. Profit!
| chucksmash wrote:
| Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days
| squeaky-clean wrote:
| I got a free copy of "Sam's Teach Yourself C# in 21 Days"
| at some Microsoft sponsored career fair thing for
| students.
|
| While not a bad book overall, each chapter was supposed
| to be "1 day" and I definitely did wonder what planet Sam
| lived on.
| justinator wrote:
| Considering tattooing "you are enough." on my inner wrist as a
| daily reminder.
| TedShiller wrote:
| Funny because if you NEED the tattoo, what does it imply...?
| RealityVoid wrote:
| Change it to "You and this tatoo are enough." and you have
| closed the loop!
| justinator wrote:
| It implies that I need to remind myself of my sick way of
| thinking
|
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60456465-i-am-enough
|
| https://medium.com/thrive-global/5-things-i-did-to-sober-
| up-...
|
| https://www.caron.org/blog/when-the-lines-between-work-
| and-s...
| mellosouls wrote:
| You are Andrew Tate and I claim my five pounds.
|
| Or Russ Hanneman.
| abledon wrote:
| dont forget to use discountcode huberman at athetlic greens
| ghostbrainalpha wrote:
| I really like Athletic Greens though....
| nickstinemates wrote:
| I don't. Tastes like shit.
| [deleted]
| boopmaster wrote:
| The recent episode _What we do in the Shadows_ : "Go Flip
| Yourself" has the gang watching a version of property brothers
| while their house is falling apart around them. I thought it was
| part of the subtext, at least... unproductive watching others do
| what you need to do.
|
| I've experienced this firsthand when asking my partner if maybe
| we can think about picking up... so yeah, the TV remote was
| picked up so Marie Condo [sp?] videos could light up the TV...
| and instead of just picking up, it's a watch party of someone
| else picking up :(
|
| I hate productivity-tube for this!
|
| /end rant
| florakel wrote:
| > Examples of productivity porn include but are not limited to:
| reading a tweet by a top VC about how to become a better startup
| founder; watching a Youtube video about the 7 mistakes you need
| to avoid at the gym; perusing a Hacker News thread about how to
| improve the code you write. All of these activities deceptively
| make you feel like you've done something productive. "I just
| learned something new", you tell yourself.
|
| Those examples from the article make sense but in my experience
| the biggest illusion of productivity happens right inside our day
| to day work routines, namely email and chat systems. People
| respond to endless email threads that in the end trigger no
| action, endless discussions on Slack channels with no decision
| making until eventually somebody calls a meeting. We type and
| type but in the end we waste our own attention and our coworker's
| attention just to feel important and productive without doing
| anything useful most of the time.
| koheripbal wrote:
| Reading this thread is a good example.
| mise_en_place wrote:
| I guess I take a different approach than the author does. I waste
| several hours a day on such social media consumption, but I don't
| delude myself into thinking I was productive. If anything, it
| lights a fire under me because I wasted so much time, and that
| gives me a productivity boost to finish the things I was supposed
| to do.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| He seems to conflate learning with productivity porn. Doing a
| course or even a short gym video is fine if (a) you sought it out
| to solve a problem and (b) you apply what you have learned.
|
| Even serendipitous "I will learn that interesting thing on HN" if
| done with purpose and diligence is fine.
| [deleted]
| thejackgoode wrote:
| "We need to go deeper". Many people substitute lack of meaning
| with "productivity". Reason being that you cannot be truly
| productive long-term if you don't have a why.
|
| Therefore, people copy attributes and behaviour patterns of
| productive individuals, but meaning is not possible to copy, so
| all of it is a sweatfest.
| thenerdhead wrote:
| While this term gets overused, I think what we're really saying
| is that we're addicted to success. Or the idea that we will be
| successful if we are overly productive.
|
| If you watch many of the people on social media who are
| "productivity gurus", you will notice that their philosophy of
| how to stay productive will shift as the content gets stale and
| they need something more novel to talk about with their growing
| audience. Many of them are just like you and me and cover the
| latest bestseller book or popular tweet that has merit to it, but
| then gets discarded after we realize it doesn't work in our
| lives.
|
| In turn, they also become wildly successful by providing you
| surface level tips on how to be a little more productive each
| day.
|
| While I used to be obsessed about this topic or what others call
| "hustle culture", I think you have to go through it before you
| realize how finite one's life really is. The overworking, the
| "always on"-ness, the comparison to others who happened to reach
| success earlier than us.
|
| It all doesn't matter at the end of the day. The simplistic
| perspective is that you can take common occasions and make them
| great and you'll find success or at least a better understanding
| of your definition of "success".
| googlryas wrote:
| > Or the idea that we will be successful if we are overly
| productive.
|
| I find this one the most fascinating. It implies a supreme
| confidence in the correctness of one's beliefs, which I simply
| have never had. As if to say, the only thing stopping my
| success is my ability to drive faster, but without any doubt
| that you're actually on the right road, heading the right
| direction, etc...
| truncate wrote:
| I've come to realize that there is some kind of wisdom on not
| caring too much about outcomes, being in present and keeping
| things simple. For a long time, I believed in exactly opposite,
| success, over-optimize - whatever I do do it right way. Until
| during COVID, I found myself doing so many things, music,
| fitness, coding, photography, and later dating -- and you can
| constantly find endless amount of advise and new ways to do
| things on YouTube, while not realizing you are getting mentally
| exhausted. Trying to stay more in present, and keeping things
| simple now -- not to succumb to the mass-marketing campaign of
| whatever that something on internet usually is (most times it
| is marketing something, be it some product or themselves).
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Humans humanned before the internet after all :-). And
| books/magazines/newspapers for that matter.
| thenerdhead wrote:
| Exactly. I firmly believe that there's even a paradox to all
| this. The less you care, the more successful you can be.
| Almost like Office Space.
|
| Doing a few things very well is what separates you from
| someone who does a hundred things not well at all.
|
| Attention is your most previous resource and it's stolen from
| us everyday by others when we should reclaim it for ourselves
| and those few things that we're passionate for.
| [deleted]
| bribri wrote:
| > Productivity porn is anything that after having been consumed
| makes you feel like you were productive when in reality you
| didn't actually do anything.
|
| I disagree with the line of thinking that all research which
| isn't immediately useful is unproductive. It just needs to be
| limited. Set a time limit of 30 minutes per day for researching
| and improving your meta process.
|
| Those articles on AI you read on hackernews might be planting the
| seeds for your next career change. It's impossible to know ahead
| of time.
|
| I think the ideal breakdown is 20% research, 70% action and 10%
| reflection.
| zotronix wrote:
| Could not agree more. That is the core idea behind the power of
| novelty search and open-endedness:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLi0eIdyQU4
| snowpiercer wrote:
| Yes ,you are correct
| bilater wrote:
| Meta point: Reading this article was productivity porn.
| wizofaus wrote:
| But reading the comments has made my day, some zingers and
| great references to other resources of genuine comedic value I
| hadn't seen before.
| sdoering wrote:
| > Meta point
|
| Meta porn
| redanddead wrote:
| I was listening to Zuckerberg's internal Facebook memo to
| employees and they're really going all out on VR, they think
| it'll go big, trying to generate monopolistic effects by
| subsidizing their VR hardware so that more people buy in, and
| buying VR studios.
|
| Porn. Just give people meta porn
| notsapiensatall wrote:
| They can't. The money is in ads, and advertisers won't
| touch anything that isn't family-friendly.
|
| A startup might be able to do a decent job, but they would
| get booted off the app store faster than you can say a
| four-letter word.
|
| Too bad there's no good way for users to write and run
| arbitrary code on their devices.
| ChildOfChaos wrote:
| Yet they just increased the cost of the quest by $100
| redanddead wrote:
| Just checked, yeah you're right! Wonder why
| [deleted]
| ketzo wrote:
| Only if you don't follow its advice!
| triplechill wrote:
| I love this :D
| atmosx wrote:
| busted
| [deleted]
| personjerry wrote:
| I think for content like this there's a scale between mostly
| "feel good" fluff (i.e. Gary V stuff, imo) to mostly "useful"
| stuff (i.e. Atomic Habits, imo). But everything has a mixture of
| actionability and story-based fluff thrown in there
| entertainment/inspirational value.
|
| In my opinion, the fluff gets you through the drier parts of the
| reads. But what you decide to actually take out of the book and
| action on - that's up to you.
|
| You turned it into mere entertainment when you read but didn't
| take action, for example, clean up your desk to enable your
| habits to begin, as clearly described in the Atomic Habits book.
|
| The good reads you'll probably need to note down and return to a
| few times to extract all the useful, concrete advice.
| jbjbjbjb wrote:
| That's an interesting distinction. I think the in-between is
| the worst. At least with Gary V you know you're getting energy
| and motivation. Another YouTube video skimming over lessons
| from Atomic Habits for the hundredth time is the mindless faux
| learning to avoid.
| bckr wrote:
| Darn, this is completely true. I feel like such a techie when I
| scroll HN and hoard links for later perusal. In fact I feel so
| much better than I did about the same time spent on FB or Reddit.
| But I'm still not putting that time into constructive pursuits.
| alexalx666 wrote:
| what helped me is having a filing system I can trust and tinker
| with, check out linkding on github
| amelius wrote:
| Perhaps we should write down the things we _really_ learned
| from reading HN, so we can decide later if it was worth the
| time.
| macrael wrote:
| I can't find an online article where Merlin Mann discusses this
| but I remember very vividly him talking about why he stopped
| posting on 43Folders.com a decade ago. 43Folders was a GTD
| productivity porn site and after while Merlin decided that he
| didn't want to be "giving drugs to addicts" and stopped posting
| little "5 ways to write a better task title" articles for all the
| same reasons OP is writing about here.
| dougskinner wrote:
| Here ya go, one of my all time favorites of his:
| https://www.43folders.com/2011/04/22/cranking
| macrael wrote:
| A beautiful piece, thank you. But this is more about him
| prioritizing family over his book. It must have been on a
| podcast I remember him talking about how he kind of had a
| crisis of faith over running 43folders and stopped doing
| little "life hack" posts.
| badkarma1963 wrote:
| This is unfair. Current events and hacker news type articles can
| offer inspiration.
| Oarch wrote:
| You've discovered the motivational industrial complex. I think
| this nicely sums up the content of many magazines.
| goatcode wrote:
| I was disheartened when I read about all these successful
| people and their lofty advice. I was more disheartened when I
| realized their advice is just the random stuff they happened to
| do that on their path to success, and that equivalent advice of
| the myriad failures that complement them would never be heard
| (and that both were of approximately equal value). Despite how
| in the overmind the notion of "correlation is not causation,"
| this snake oil is surprisingly only beginning to go out of
| fashion.
| thenerdhead wrote:
| I like to read self-help. I think it can actually change your
| life.
|
| The problem is finding actual good self-help. Most stuff is
| garbage or dives too deep into a specific topic.
|
| One of my favorite authors is Orison Swett Marden
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orison_Swett_Marden) who
| writes well-rounded self-help and founded a magazine
| ironically called "Success". There's also Samuel Smiles who
| wrote the original title called "Self-Help".
|
| If you go back in time far enough, you will come to the
| conclusion that most self-help stems back to certain
| influences at the time. You can go as far back as to the tao
| te ching, meditations, or even the bible. Not much of this
| stuff changes, but is repackaged with modern examples of
| successful people into bestsellers.
| robocat wrote:
| One friend calls them "self harm books" because the vast
| majority are harmful overall - sold as part of the self-
| harm-industrial-complex.
| WastingMyTime89 wrote:
| > You can go as far back as to the tao te ching,
| meditations, or even the bible.
|
| The Tao Te Ching with the adjonction of its commentaries is
| a book on Confucian moral and ethic. The Meditations is a
| journal and also mostly a book about ethics. I think
| linking them to modern self-help books is somewhat
| disingenuous.
|
| I deeply believe that if people actually stopped reading
| self-help books and read books about ethics instead the
| world would definitely be a far better place. "How to live
| a life worth living?" is after all a far more interesting
| question than "How to do the most of your life?".
| [deleted]
| heavyset_go wrote:
| Most of the "advice" is just stuff some ghostwriters came up
| with that sound good and fit into whatever image those people
| want to publicly project.
| prometheus76 wrote:
| Goes back to Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. That
| book really started the "self-improvement" movement.
| ozim wrote:
| You say you were disheartened.
|
| I bought and read Robert Kiyosaki - Rich Dad Poor Dad
| followed with Donald Trump - The Art of the Deal.
|
| After reading these I felt worse than at the time I was
| actually mugged on the street. I think I paid like $20 for
| both books and muggers got something like $15 I had on me.
| honkler wrote:
| swyx wrote:
| the irony is that they are just giving the audience what it
| wants - a causal formula for success. a guy just saying "i
| got really lucky" over and over would get no readership.
| goatcode wrote:
| 1. I got really lucky
|
| 2. My cousin has a connection to cheap money and invited me
| into a social circle where I could use it
|
| 3. I was willing to make people angry and unhappy along the
| way
|
| 4. I somehow fit into someone else's plan, and I get some
| decent scraps of riches for existing and pretending to do
| something important
|
| These seem to be the main keys to success. I will admit
| that someone who's completely incompetent is less likely to
| succeed with access to just one or two of the above
| (excluding 4, which can stand on its own for a period of
| time), but if he's got all of the first 3 or 4 alone,
| success is pretty well guaranteed, regardless of ability or
| worthiness. I'm sure there are exceptions, but the vast
| unwashed rabble of successful people I believe have
| something from the above list.
| smiddereens wrote:
| tomcam wrote:
| A mild defense of productivity porn. It was books like Ben
| Franklin's biography, Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", and
| Wayne Dyers' books that made me realize that I could get ahead by
| sheer determination and working fairly smart.
|
| They changed my life. It helped me get out of a fairly unpleasant
| home situation. I learned that I didn't need to be super smart or
| athletic or good looking to raise myself up a few steps on the
| (American) economic ladder. Grit, and putting myself in the way
| of success, and failing plenty, actually did propel me into a
| pretty damn good life.
| felipelalli wrote:
| The best part: "Ironically, the thing delivering the wake-up
| message was productivity porn itself self-aware enough to surface
| the issue."
| 8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote:
| I would recommend
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54785515-four-thousand-w...
| as an interesting counter-argument to all of the productivity
| literature out there.
| emadabdulrahim wrote:
| I listened to his short lectures on the Waking Up app. Really
| enjoyed them and clicked for me. I wonder if it's still worth
| reading the book.
| someweirdperson wrote:
| > "Whether you are doom-scrolling on Instagram" [...]
|
| This most likely isn't intended to be reading a never-ending
| stream of bad news (on instagram?), but simply an endlessly
| scrolling site that keeps loading content before reaching the end
| of the page. The wiktionary definition [0] seems wrong.
|
| [0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doomscrolling#English
| californical wrote:
| I think that people use it hyperbolically rather than literally
| in that context -- the original meaning is correct, but people
| use the word in an exaggerated context to make a point
| [deleted]
| biztos wrote:
| One of the original, and most effective, competition hacks is to
| convince people that you sleep less than they do.
|
| When someone tells you they sleep 5 hours a night then run two
| miles and take a 15-minute cold shower then start their work day,
| 85% of the time they are lying, 10% of the time you will have
| already noticed the effects of chronic sleep deprivation, and 5%
| of the time it's drugs.
|
| But this has been a surefire way to put your competitors on the
| back foot for hundreds, probably thousands of years.
| agota wrote:
| You need to account for genetic outliers.
|
| IIRC, Jocko Willink believes that his ability to function on
| little sleep is genetic, he just doesn't need much of it.
|
| He has mentioned that this was a running joke in the Seal
| teams, which presumably consist of people already selected for
| their ability to function on little sleep, not your average "7
| - 8 hours of sleep" folks.
|
| But then normal people who need an average amount of sleep
| start "getting after it" by waking up at 4.30 AM because that's
| what Jocko does.
|
| You can wake up at 4.30 AM as a normal person, but you'd need
| to go to sleep at 8.30 PM - 9.30 PM for that to be sustainable.
|
| You can't "discipline equals freedom" yourself into optimal
| performance under perpetual sleep deprivation.
| drcode wrote:
| When you listen to Jocko talk about himself, you are not
| getting an honest accounting about an actual human being
|
| Your are being given a story created by Jocko to build the
| Jocko mythos. Jocko will not let any truths get in the way of
| a good story about the mythical Jocko. His artisinal leather
| boots and cologne don't sell themselves, you know.
| agota wrote:
| I tend to believe what he says because I don't get the
| "narcissist cult leader" vibe from him.
|
| I do get that vibe from the vast majority of popular
| content creators in the "hustle" niche, though.
| emsign wrote:
| Tricking competition like that is really a zero sum game when
| it comes to mental health. I don't recommend doing that at all.
| You don't want to be in an environment like that even if you've
| contributed to its existence, you're not in control anymore.
| shatnersbassoon wrote:
| If you read enough of those "day in the life" articles in
| newspapers about the daily routine of famous/successful people,
| you realise that they are probably complete fabrications. Even
| if it's not for competition purposes, convincing people that
| you do mad stuff like get up at 2am for a kale cleanse,
| followed by three hours of meditation is fun. And on top of
| that, it adds to the razzle-dazzle and gets people talking
| about you. That's why Michael Jackson pretended to sleep in an
| oxygen tent.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| > But this has been a surefire way to put your competitors on
| the back foot for hundreds, probably thousands of years.
|
| So there examples of this?
| hackerlight wrote:
| No, some people have a genetic mutation that allows them to
| sleep for 5 hours a day.
| biztos wrote:
| Fascinating, and true about the mutation:
|
| https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/gene-
| id...
|
| So I should update the above to include some percentage who
| are lying about having this mutation, and an extremely
| minuscule likelihood your sales manager actually happens to
| have it. Second prize is a set of 23andMe test kits.
| noud wrote:
| Are there?
|
| Not saying they don't exist. But I've yet to meet someone who
| only sleeps 5 hours a day, doesn't have bags under the eyes,
| and doesn't fall asleep in every meeting.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Also no breaks at work, lunch is for wimps. Refer to Will Smith
| saying how he would die on a treadmill rather than lose. Watch
| overwork porn like Suits or any legal drama.
| koheripbal wrote:
| I believe in napping, not lunch.
|
| I've noticed my energy dips very significantly after lunch,
| whereas if I nap for 30 mins, I get a burst of energy and
| focus.
|
| I also got down to a healthier weight.
| the__alchemist wrote:
| Where's the line? Watching self-help content is described in the
| article as productivity porn. What about reading a self-help
| book? A (let's say good quality) non-fiction book? A scientific
| paper? A text book? Taking a class? Working on a project that is
| likely to fail? Writing code? Writing an article? Writing a book?
|
| > When I look for solutions to this problem I only come up with
| half-baked ideas and more questions.
|
| It sounds like the author's talking about science.
| Ensorceled wrote:
| If you are spending all your time "sharpening your saw" and no
| time "cutting wood" ... you are probable over the line.
| satisfice wrote:
| Why? Maybe I appreciate beautifully sharp knives. There is no
| line. Simply live an examined life. If you want to change
| something, change it. If not, that's okay.
|
| This post by the OP is his own musing. It has little bearing
| on the rest of us, and personally I just think his analysis
| is wrong.
| Ensorceled wrote:
| I completely and totally disagree with you!
|
| Wait, what are a we all feeling strongly about? Ah, a quip
| on hacker news.
| the__alchemist wrote:
| Love that comparison. It also makes the distinction that this
| is a matter of degree; not kind.
| californical wrote:
| This is an excellent analogy! If you want to cut wood more
| effectively and so you watch a few videos about technique,
| then you try it for a while, watch a few more, improve, find
| a tool that'll help, try it and see if it helps -- you're
| doing it right!
|
| If you go buy a bunch of tools and learn techniques of all of
| the professional woodcutters, before you've even gotten any
| wood, then you're probably doing it wrong.
| sdoering wrote:
| I think in the end the question is what the result is. Does the
| self help content prompt action, ideally sustainable action. Or
| is it porn as described.
|
| Like porn could be a tool for people to engage in
| (re)productive action. Or just porn.
| ketzo wrote:
| I think the easy rule of thumb is "do you ever actually _do_
| the thing you read about?"
| cpach wrote:
| I like to read about lots of things. Urban planning,
| manufacturing, arts, culture, movies, politics, etc etc.
|
| Am I a manufacturer? Do I make oil paintings? Do I direct
| movies? Am I an elected officiel? No. I'm in tech, doing
| programming and sysadmin things. I'm a small cog in the whole
| scheme of things. Still interesting to read about what's
| going on in other fields. Nothing wrong with that IMHO.
| ketzo wrote:
| Agreed - but by the same token, I don't think you would
| call any of that reading "productivity-related," right?
|
| Whereas if I, a software engineer, read 100 articles about
| micro services and make a bunch of grand plans without ever
| actually implementing anything... pornography.
| tgtweak wrote:
| Theres a reason the subreddit is called powerwashingporn... It's
| very satisfactory to watch someone else do something to
| completion - ideally in a sped up manner.
|
| Car detailing youtube channels, lawncare ("cleaned this disaster
| yard") channels, time lapse before/after renovations... They do
| very well for a reason.
| shannifin wrote:
| This seems related to another issue I've been thinking about
| lately: how to effectively measure productivity. I've been
| working on an MVP for a startup for a lot longer than I'd like.
| I've done a lot of work, but have gone down so many dead ends or
| potential "tarpits" that I feel unproductive, because the dead
| ends result in nothing useful... except learning why they're dead
| ends.
|
| But how do I judge the most useful (and therefore "productive")
| thing to do before I do it, since something may become a dead
| end? I don't know.
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